Whickle - [Fearsome Critter]

Whickle. - [Fearsome Critter] - Latin: Insecta Oliohaustoriu

• About this critter: A menace to the oil industry; they'd swarm oil wells and suck 'em dry. - Usually described as either a cross between a 'bumble bee and a canary' or a 'humming bird crossed with a hornet.' - (its yet another example of an avian critter which could also be classified as an insect (or vise versa) as whichever it actually is is unclear.) It had a long proboscis (or perhaps a long tongue?) which it they would use to drink gallons of sweet Texas crude straight from the tap. The means of getting rid of 'em was expensive; reportedly The only thing they enjoyed more than oil, was the taste of applejack which would be sprinkled around the bushes near an oil well, resulting in easy capture, the creatures heads at the time where worth a small fortune!

• History: Likely, the earliest described mention of the Whickles are by Mody C Boatright in his book  "Gib Morgan, minstrel of the oil fields." [1945] - Gib is an example of an actual flesh and blood person, whose feats at his job, were exaggerated to the proportions of Paul Bunyan. – Regardless of the story's legitimacy; the book gives a fascinating peek into how folklore developed during the early 1900s. - The book classifies 'whickles' as such:

The same creature is also mentioned in "The real book of American Tall Tales" [1952] –
And "Folklore of the oil industry" [1963.] –

Of course, The Whickle also appears in several other books that describe Gib, Paul Bunyan, Jon Henry and company. (a bit more than i can stomach to look through (for now!)) 

... Eventually, The Whickle was included in Walker D. Wyman's updated 1978 bestiary: "Mythical Creatures of the USA and Canada." and it was given a proper Latin name (such is tradition for 'legitimizing' these critters.) – for some reason, Wyman says that "there's no accurate description" of how the creature looks (despite plenty of the contrary evidence listed above.) and that nobody ever tried to illustrate it. – (Til now! i suppose?)  – Wymans full entry went as follows:

"Whickle ("Insecta Oliohaustorium")

     As the oil industry moved across the nation after its origin in Pennsylvania in 1859, it faced a strange creature known as the Whickle. Since there where no Photographs of this insect ever taken and no artist ever attempted to do for the Whickle what Audubon did for birds, no accurate description of its size or shape has ever been made. But it had one annoying characteristic – it liked oil. These little creatures swarmed around the oil wells, and wherever a pool of oil was open to them, they stuck their long proboscis deep into the oil and drank. These little creatures managed to get inside the oil casings when the pumps were not going and drank from the giant underground pools. Many people think the underground oil pools of Pennsylvania Ohio Kansas and Texas have been exhausted by the pumps. Such is not the case. It is the whickles that have drunk the wells dry.

Some effort was made to exerminate them. Gib morgan used to sprinkle apple jack on the bushes around the wells, and the whickle would drink it and get so drunk that Morgan could easily catch them. apparently this was too costly a method in getting rid of this mythical pest that drank the oil wells dry."

• Similar Creatures & Parallels: Since The first mention of this critter was initially published during WWII, a time when "Gremlins" were also often blamed for eating petrol, oil, fuel or gas. - (see also: "petrol boozer.") - I'd almost call it a variant of that, or say that it was perhaps 'inspired by gremlins.' – (however it is more than likely entirely coincidental) – Yet another critter which drinks gas is found in the dingbat. A couple of other "bird-bugs" from popular tall tales at the time, include the Beeskeeto & The Pricuricu. –

• The likely culprit: If you wanted to put an actual face to the various reports of a creature eating oil/gasoline it seems likely to me that the 'insects' they might have been talking about could have actually been camphor shot borer beatles! – [a type of wood beetle which were much later discovered to eat into gas/fuel canisters in 1999.] - Anyway, since i already drew beeskeetos a while ago, have a hornet/canary.

[Art sticker by @samkalensky part of my fearsome critters collection of stickers check my shop and follow for many more!]