skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

From Albert Hugh Jones   17 November 1869

Shrublands, | Eltham, | S.E.

17 Nov 1869

Dear Sir,

On the other side I have much pleasure in sending you particulars as regards sexes of Lepidoptera, reared this season. I am sorry I have so few to record, but hope to do better for you next season.1

I am, Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Albert H Jones

Profr Darwin

Lepidoptera reared from Egg.
Eriogaster Lanestris 73 68
Orgyia Pudibunda2 17 14
90 82
Lepidoptera reared from Larvæ collected
Bombyx Castrensis3 22 32
112 114 4

CD annotations

End of letter:
364 3115
114 112
478 423.
ink

Footnotes

No query to Jones has been found. In 1868, Jones enumerated the proportion of the sexes in nine species (DAR 85: B83); see Descent 1: 313. No later correspondence with Jones has been found.
The moth Eriogaster lanestris is known as the small eggar. Orgyia Pudibunda is now Calliteara pudibunda, the pale tussock.
Bombyx castrensis is now Malacosoma castrensis, the ground lackey.
In Descent 1: 313, CD reported that Jones ‘reared imagos from 4 species’ resulting in 112 females and 114 males.
CD calculated the ratio of 364 males to 311 females as equal to 117 males to 100 females on the back of DAR 85: B83, but it is not clear where these figures came from.

Bibliography

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

Summary

Statistics on sexes of Lepidoptera reared this season. [See Descent 1: 313.]

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6993
From
Albert Hugh Jones
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Eltham
Source of text
DAR 86: 77–8
Physical description
ALS 2pp †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6993,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6993.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17

letter