To Otto Staudinger 20 May 1868
Down Bromley Kent, S E
May 20 | 1868.
Dear Sir
I thank you sincerely for your most kind and interesting letter.1 It is a great disappointment to me that I may not trust to your List in relation to the sexes of Lepidoptera; but I am not the less obliged to you for having saved me from falling into error.2 It would be a very interesting point if you could prove that the females were the most liable to perish in coccoon-state; but, as I understand your letter, this is at present only your belief.3 I am particularly glad to hear of the remarkable fact of the hybrid moths being all males. This fact will come in very useful for me to quote.4 I quite agree with what you say, that entomologists have the best means of proving the derivation of species, & I have often much wished that I was one of the class, but it evidently requires the labour of a life to study carefully even one division of so gigantic a class.
With very sincere thanks & my best respects, I remain, dear Sir | Yours faithfully | 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
Thanks for information on sex ratios of Lepidoptera.
Agrees that entomologists have best means of proving derivation of species.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6192
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Otto Staudinger
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 147: 492
- Physical description
- C 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6192,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6192.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16