To Otto Staudinger 6 May [1868]1
Down Bromley Kent S.E
May. 6
Dear Sir
I do not know whether you will excuse the liberty which I take in writing to you and begging a favour.
I have been corresponding with Mr H Doubleday on the relative number of the males & females in Lepidoptera, & he sent me your Lepidopt-doubletten list No X, that I might judge of the number of the males comparatively with the females, by their prices.2 I have tabulated all the cases (excluding the moths with apterous females) & I find that in the Rhopalocera there are 113 species & vars. in which the males are cheaper & therefore apparently commoner than the females; & one case alone in which the female is cheaper. In the Heterocera there are 130 sp. & vars. in which the male is cheaper, and 11 sp. in which the female is cheaper.3 Now some English lepidopterists maintained in a discussion at our Entomolog. Soc. that in a state of nature the males are much more plentiful than the females; but that when bred from the caterpillar or egg-state the females are generally the most numerous.4 In a book which I am preparing I intend to specify the results above given from your published lists, and the favour which I wish to beg of you is that you will look through your list and kindly inform me whether in those cases in which the males are cheapest, and in a few cases in which the females are cheapest—whether the specimens have generally been caught in a state of nature, or have been bred from the caterpillar, or from the egg-state.5
If you will grant me this favour & allow me to quote the answer, I shall esteem it a very great kindness.
I beg leave to remain Dear Sir with much respect | yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Asks about the ratio of male to female Lepidoptera.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6164
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Otto Staudinger
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 147: 491
- Physical description
- C 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6164,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6164.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16