To Albany Hancock 12 May [1850]
Down Farnborough Kent
May 12th
My dear Sir
Owing to a perhaps foolish habit of not reading Periodicals when they come out; I have only just read your very interesting paper on the boring of Mollusca in the Annals;1 & this reminded me that you wished for more information regarding Lithotrya;2 I really do not know what to give. I have 3 specimen of Lithotrya & I enclose one for you. I have picked out one that has lately moulted (this moulting of scales unique in whole order of common Cirripedes.) & therefore has the scales on peduncle,3 with the teeth pretty sharp: the valves of course are not moulted, but the old layers scale or are rubbed off.—
I have not one with the basal calcareous cup; though several have been lent me. I wish you could see the basal cup; I feel sure it wd confirm your opinion that it could not be the borer.—4
I can see no reason yet to alter my opinion, that Lithotrya either crawls into cavity which it enlarges or if not, that the larva has the power of boring a hole, in which it fixes itself & undergoes its metamorphosis.5
I have several foreign species of Clisia6 & I will attend to their to me quite wonderful boring-powers.—7
Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Hancock, Albany. 1848. On the boring of the Mollusca into rocks, &c.; and on the removal of portions of their shells. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 2d ser. 2: 225– 48.
Living Cirripedia (1851): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Lepadidæ; or, pedunculated cirripedes. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1851.
Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.
Summary
Mentions AH’s ["On the boring of the Mollusca into rocks", Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2d ser. 2 (1848): 225–48]. Discusses anatomy and habits of Lithotrya.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1327
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Albany Hancock
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.93)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1327,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1327.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 4