To Robert McLachlan 23 March [1866]1
Down Bromley Kent
Mar 23
Dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for your paper on Sterrha, which I have read with very great interest.2 Many of your observations are quite new to me. I was particularly glad to read about the varying organs in the Neuroptera;3 should you ascertain similar cases in the Trichoptera,4 I shd be grateful for information.
Would it not be well worth while to get some of your friends to breed Eupithecia from eggs of the same female & to feed them on different plants & thus ascertain positively how the mimicry is effected.5
I have been very glad to see (whether or not you have been influenced by my writings) that you have given up to a great extent the belief in the immutability of species;6 & I feel sure that as you attend to other subjects besides the discrimination of species you will ultimately go further in your belief; at least I have hitherto found this to be the case with those who have doubted to a limited degree.
With my best thanks believe me dear Sir | yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Summary
Thanks for the paper on Sterrha (McLachlan 1865).
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5038F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Robert McLachlan
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Raab Collection (dealer) (June 2014)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5038F,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5038F.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18 (Supplement)