To F. W. Hope [21 June 1837]
[36 Great Marlborough Street]
Dear Hope
I called yesterday on you and left a tin box with a few Hobart Town beetles, which I had neglected to put with the others. Is not there not a chrysomela among them, very like the English species which feeds on the Broom.— I have spoken to Waterhouse about the Australian insects; you can have them when you like.— The collections in the pill boxes come from Sydney, Hobart town, and King George’s Sound.— Do you want all orders for your work?. Some are already I believe in the hands of Mr Walker,1 & you know Waterhouse has described some minute Coleoptera in two papers read to the Entomological Soc:2 To these description of course you will refer.— You will be glad to find that many of the minute Coleoptera from Sydney are mounted on cards.— Will you send me as soon as you conveniently can, one of my boxes, as I am in want of them to transplant some more insects.— Perhaps you had better return the Carabi,3 as they come from several localities I am afraid of some mistake. We must put out specimens for the Entomolog Soc: & your Cabinet. May I state in a note on your authority that a third or a half of the insects which you already have of mine from Sydney & Hobart town are undescribed.— It is a striking fact, if such is the case, for it shows how imperfectly known the insects are, even in the close neighbour-hood of the two Australian Capitals.
Floreat Entomologia | Yours most truly | Chas. Darwi⟨n⟩ Wednesday
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Hope, Frederick William. 1837. Descriptions of some species of Carabidæ, collected by Charles Darwin, Esq., in his late voyage. [Read 1 May 1837.] Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 2: 128–31.
Walker, Francis. 1839. Monographia Chalciditum. London: Hyppolitus Bailliere.
Summary
Discusses insect specimens he left with FWH. Asks if he may state on FWH’s authority that a third or a half of the specimens from Sydney and Hobart Town are undescribed – a striking fact, showing imperfect knowledge of the insects in the close neighbourhood of the two Australian capitals.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-362
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Frederick William Hope
- Sent from
- London, Gt Marlborough St, 36
- Source of text
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological collections)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 362,” accessed on 28 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-362.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2