From C. S. Bate 31 July 1869
Plymouth
July 31. 69
My dear Sir
I find your letter upon my return home after a short absence.—1 In carcinas mænas the male carries the female about hugging her with the dorsal surface against his ventral surface—seeking apparently some quiet place of concealment, this continues longer or a shorter time until the female moults, when immediately copulation takes place & continues some day or two probably until the integument of the female becomes hard & calcareous:— Copulation takes place face to face—2
Crustacea—not parasitic or entomostracous are I think generally larger than the female3 Certainly so in the Brachyura to a marked degree—generally—But not conspicuously so in the Anomoura and Macroura—4
In the Amphipoda & Isopoda the males are the larger except in Parasitic genera5—in which they are generally smaller— In the Ento-mostracous Crustaceæ I am less certain But I think variable
I hope that my information is of use as it always pleases me to find it so
Believe me yours sincerely | C. Spence Bate
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Leftwich, A. W. 1973. A dictionary of zoology. 3d edition. London: Constable.
Summary
Mating practice of Carcinus maenas [see Descent 1: 331].
Difference in size in sexes of Crustacea.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6847
- From
- Charles Spence Bate
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Plymouth
- Source of text
- DAR 82: A72–3
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6847,” accessed on 17 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6847.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17