From H. T. Stainton 7 March 1868
Mountsfield, | Lewisham. | S.E.
March 7th 1868
My dear Mr Darwin,
With reference to the protection which the females of the Brimstone Butterfly & Orange Tip derive from their resemblance to White Butterflies—the latter are so ubiquitous that there is no doubt that all occur together—but unless you find that birds refuse to catch the Common white butterflies I am afraid the others would derive no protection from this resemblance, except from young Entomologists, a class I fear hardly sufficiently numerous to produce a sensible effect on the colouring of female butterflies.1
Dr Wallace’s suggestion with reference to the larvæ of females being collected in preference to those of males from their larger size is no doubt a very good one.—2 In the case of the Vapourer Moths—the larger size of the female larvæ must sensibly operate in attracting the eye of the collector & in the Emperor Moth the same thing would operate.3 It was to eliminate this source of error that I appealed to breeders for their experience in breeding whole broods of species.
I have now to thank you for your very kind present of your last new work, which reached me yesterday.4
I regret only that the little information I have been able to give you has not been of a more satisfactory nature
Yours very sincerely | H. T— Stainton
C. Darwin Esq
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Protective coloration in butterflies.
[Alexander] Wallace’s suggestion that collecting larger larvae of females accounts for error in counting proportion of sexes.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5994
- From
- Henry Tibbats Stainton
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Lewisham
- Source of text
- DAR 86: A19–20
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp † & ACC 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5994,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5994.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16