muricide

plural muricides

1. uncountableMouse-killing (especially in rats).

   The mechanism of muricide behavior probably involves a discrete area of the brain, the amygdala.

   1977, Israel Hanin, Earl Usdin, Animal Models in Psychiatry and Neurology

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   That Tabby their feathers had frighten’d, / Amusing her jaws with the carnage of mice— / But lately her habits had grown very nice, / And her taste much more enlighten’d. / Could that delicate skin harbour murder within? / Those eyes so mildly winking, / Could they gaze on the pangs of the quiet and meek? / Could that soft velvet head, so pacific and sleek, / On muricide deeds be thinking?

   1829 February 20, Θ [pseudonym], “‘An ower true tale.’”, in The Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, and Huntingdonshire Gazette, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] James Hodson, […], page [4], column 1

   This district […] supports a local mouse-god; […] consequently not only is muricide a penal offence but anything which affects the lives and fortunes of these engaging little rodents cannot fail to be of deep concern.

   1924 September 12, The Times of India, Bombay, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 5

   Hyperemotionality of the latter rats included not only hyperreactivity similar to that observed in the septal rat but also a muricide of 90% in incidence, which is similar to rats with olfactory bulb ablations.

   1974, Seiichi Nurimoto, Nobuya Ogawa, Showa Ueki, “Hyperemotionality induced by lesions in the olfactory system of the rat”, in Japanese Journal of Pharmacology, volume 24, number 2, Kyoto: Japanese Pharmacological Society, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 175

   The experimental models used included isolation and shock-induced conspecific aggression, muricide (mouse-killing), and ranicide (frog-killing).

   1974 October, Bruce K. Bernard, Ronald M. Paolino, “Biogenic Amines and Androgens in the Study of Aggressive Behavior”, in Psychopharmacology Bulletin, volume 10, number 4, page 59, column 1

   McIntyre (personal communication) found no change in the mouse-killing patterns of rats post-kindling, and a more extensive study by Bawden and Racine found no changes in muricide, ranicide or intraspecific aggression of their post-kindled rats.

   1980, M. Girgis, L.G. Kiloh, editors, Limbic Epilepsy and the Dyscontrol Syndrome: […] , Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, →ISBN, page 113

2. countableuncommonSomeone or something that kills mice, rats, or voles.

   Muricide, (lat[in]) a mouſe-killer, a cowardly fellow.

   [1658, Edward Phillips, compiler, “Muricide”, in The New World of English Words: Or, A General Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Tyler, for Nath[aniel] Brook […], →OCLC, column 2

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   […] The old mordacious Rat that dared devour / Antecedaneous Ale in John’s domestic bower. // Lo here, with hirsute honors doffed, succinct / Of saponaceous locks, the Priest who linked / In Hymen’s golden bands the torn unthrift, / Whose means exiguous stared from many a rift, / Even as he kissed the virgin of all forlorn, / Who milked the cow with implicated horn, / Who in fine wrath the canine torturer skied, / That dared to vex the insidious muricide, / Who let auroral effluence through the pelt / Of the sly rat that robbed the palace Jack had built.

   1857 September 19, “The Domicile Erected by John. Translated from the Vulgate of Mother Goose. By A. Pope [imitating Alexander Pope].”, in Springfield Daily Republican, volume 14, number 220 (4106 overall), Springfield, Mass., →OCLC, page 3, column 6

   A Parisian visiting the Hippodrome on Saturday night, and observing there the methodised destruction of some eight score rats by dogs varying in weight and murdering propensities—seeing, moreover, the rapt attention paid to the performance by a large section of Her Majesty’s subjects in Melbourne, and being cognisant of the fact that a live legislator’s oral certificate of death was required before the muricides could be apprehended and the victims removed for interment—would, we think, be more than ever puzzled to know where an Englishman’s notion of le sport ended.

   1859 December 26, The Argus, number 4,224, Melbourne, Vic., →OCLC, page 5, column 2

   A number of years ago it was proposed to destroy rats by means of bait infected with cultures of the organism Septicaemia muris; the first essays in this direction were not attended with success, but more lately favourable reports have been received of the efficacy of ‘Dansyz virus’ as a muricide; the use of this has, of course, been chiefly developed in connection with the prophylaxis of plague.

   1911, Noël Deerr, “The Pests and Diseases of the Cane”, in Cane Sugar: A Text-Book on the Agriculture of the Sugar Cane, the Manufacture of Cane Sugar, and the Analysis of Sugar House Products; Together with a Chapter on the Fermentation of Molasses, Altrincham, Manchester: Norman Rodger, →OCLC, page 135

   The position of thallium in the periodic table suggests that it may adhere very closely to localities where it is used as a muricide; thus the effects, beneficial or otherwise, of the accumulation of thallium in agricultural soil may provide the future middle-eastern vole expert with an interesting biogeochemical interlude to occupy him during unexciting parts of the cycle.

   1950, “Vole Populations”, in Ecology, Durham N.C.: Ecological Society of America; Duke University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 494, column 2

   Karli (1955, 1960a,b, 1961) and Karli and Vergnes (1963, 1964a,b,c) observed that some laboratory rats show a spontaneous interspecific aggressiveness toward mice, a behavior independent from hunger (Karli and Vergnes, 1964b). This kind of rat, defined as a “muricide” (Horovitz et al., 1965), can be obtained by genetic selection. As we will see later, interesting data were obtained in “killer rats” concerning the relations between lesions of certain parts of the brain and aggressive behavior.

   1967, L. Valzelli, “Drugs and Aggressiveness”, in Silvio Garattini, Parkhurst A. Shore, editors, Advances in Pharmacology, New York, N.Y.: Academic Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 80