To Stephen Price 1 September [1881]1
Down, Beckenham, Kent,
Sept. 1.—
Dear Sir,—
I am sorry I cannot answer your question.2 The Tipulidæ, or gnat family, is a very difficult one and not well known.3 No trustworthy evidence has been advanced of the introduction or appearance in this country of a new species; but it seems to me probable that some English species have lately increased in number.—
Dear Sir, yours faithfully,—C. Darwin.
Footnotes
The year is established by the date of this letter’s publication in The Times.
See letter from Stephen Price, 30 August [1881] and n. 2. In The Times, 5 September 1881, p. 10, Price was described as a ‘scientific gentleman of South Kensington’, who had written to CD the previous week. However, the address Price gives in his letter of 30 August was in a working-class area consisting of small poor houses with multiple occupants.
The family Tipulidae (crane flies) includes some insects commonly referred to as gnats, but the term ‘gnat’ often has a broader usage and can refer to several families in the suborder Nematocera, to which Tipulidae belongs.
Summary
Regrets he cannot answer SP’s question on gnats.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13311
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Stephen Price
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The Times, 5 September 1881, p. 10
- Physical description
- Printed
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13311,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13311.xml
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