Ichneumon is a genus of parasitoid wasps in the family Ichneumonidae.

Ichneumon
Ichneumon insidiosus – Male
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Ichneumonidae
Subfamily: Ichneumoninae
Genus: Ichneumon
Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
  • Colobacis Cameron, 1901
  • Coreojoppa Uchida, 1926
  • Euichneumon Berthoumieu, 1904
  • Matsumuraius Ashmead, 1906
  • Pterocormus Foerster, 1850
  • Tyanites Cameron, 1903
  • Vabsaris Cameron, 1903
  • Brachypterus Gravenhorst, 1829

Selected species

edit

This genus includes about 270 species:

Cultural significance

edit

In the eighteenth century Ichneumon was regarded as an instance of the God-given balance in nature; in the nineteenth the possibility of using it as a form of biocontrol was briefly entertained. It was used as the symbol of the reformed Entomological Society of London in 1833.[1]

References

edit
  1. ^ Wille, Sheila (December 2015). "The British Journal for the History of Science V48:4". The British Journal for the History of Science. 48 (4). Cambridge University Press: 639–660. doi:10.1017/S000708741500062X. PMID 26502951.