To Henry Doubleday 20 March [1868]
Summary
CD asks about HD’s observation of sexual call of Coleoptera.
Also comments on statements by collectors that they breed more females than males from caterpillars. CD had thought this might be accounted for by the collection of largest and finest caterpillars, but Alexander Wallace says the collectors take large and small equally. Does HD agree with Wallace?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Doubleday |
| Date: | 20 Mar [1868] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6027 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Henry Tibbats Stainton . See letter to Henry Doubleday, 1 March [1868] and nn. 3 and 4. …
- … relationship between this letter and the letter from Henry Doubleday, 28 March 1868 . See …
- … 1868 . The references are to the death-watch beetle, now Xestobium rufovillosum , and to Frederick Smith , an entomologist at the British Museum . See letter from Henry Doubleday, …
From Henry Doubleday 22 April 1868
Summary
On proportion of sexes;
coloration of sexes in Lepidoptera.
Sexual attraction of female Saturnia carpini.
| Author: | Henry Doubleday |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22 Apr 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 82: A9–10 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6139 |
To Otto Staudinger 6 May [1868]
Summary
Asks about the ratio of male to female Lepidoptera.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Otto Staudinger |
| Date: | 6 May [1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 147: 491 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6164 |
From Henry Doubleday 8 March 1868
Summary
Proportion of sexes in Lepidoptera.
Sexual preference.
Role of coloration [see Descent 1: 311–12].
| Author: | Henry Doubleday |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Mar 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B47–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5997 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … a piece of white paper. See letter to Henry Doubleday, 1 March [1868] and n. 6. CD refers …
- … See letter to Henry Doubleday, 1 March [1868] . Saturnia carpini , the emperor moth, is …
- … letter to Henry Doubleday, 1 March [1868] and n. 4). Macrolepidoptera: those families of butterflies and moths whose members are large enough to be of interest to the majority of collectors ( OED ). Henry …
From Alexander Wallace 14 March 1868
Summary
On proportion of sexes [of moths?] raised from larvae: AW does not select largest exclusively.
Account of lambing in 1864 after unusual drought.
| Author: | Alexander Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Mar 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 86: A26–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6011 |
To Henry Doubleday 15 April [1868]
Summary
Submits lists of insects [missing] for correspondent to check whether brightly coloured. Wants to determine whether there is any relation between bright colouring, whether in both sexes or one alone, and an unequal number of males and females.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Doubleday |
| Date: | 15 Apr [1868] |
| Classmark: | DAR 82: 121-2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6123 |
To H. T. Stainton 2 March [1868]
Summary
Thanks HTS for his valuable information. Hopes to arrive at probable answer to question of proportion of males to females in the progeny of butterflies bred in domestication.
On courtship of butterflies, CD believes something more than chance is involved in determining which male is successful.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Tibbats Stainton |
| Date: | 2 Mar [1868] |
| Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (General Manuscripts MSS DAR 23) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5967 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … 29 February 1868 . Stainton enclosed copies of letters from Henry Doubleday and John …
- … 1868 ). In Descent 1: 409, CD argued there was no evidence that the resemblance was beneficial, but that it was more probable that females retained the primordial colours of the group (all these butterflies belong to the family Pieridae, commonly referred to as whites and yellows). See letter to Henry Doubleday, …
- … 1868 . Wallace had not, in fact, written that a collector would be more likely to choose female caterpillars and later corrected CD on this point (see letter from Alexander Wallace, 14 March 1868 ). In his letter to Stainton of 28 February [1868] , CD had asked whether the colouring of female brimstone and orange-tip butterflies ( Gonepteryx rhamni and Anthocharis cardamines ) might mimic that of cabbage butterflies ( Pieris brassicae ) for protection. In a letter to Stainton of 26 February 1868 , Henry Doubleday …
From John Hellins 20 April 1868
Summary
Gives the evidence on which he relied for his view, which CD thinks is erroneous, of proportion of sexes in Lepidoptera.
| Author: | John Hellins |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B71–75, B79–82 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6133 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … casta , the common bagworm. See letter from Henry Doubleday, 3 April 1868 and n. 2. …
- … 1868 . See enclosure. William Buckler relied on Hellins to provide many of the larvae that he illustrated ( Salmon 2000 , pp. 158–9). Eriogaster lanestris is the small eggar; Bombyx neustria (now Malacosoma neustria ) is the lackey. CD had been sent a catalogue of Lepidoptera by Henry Doubleday (see letter from Henry Doubleday, …
From Henry Doubleday 3 April 1868
Summary
Otto Staudinger’s catalogue shows prices of female Lepidoptera to be higher than those of males.
| Author: | Henry Doubleday |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 3 Apr 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 81: 78, DAR 82: A8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6087 |
To Henry Doubleday 1 March [1868]
Summary
Has been interested in copy of HD’s letter to H. T. Stainton on numerical proportions of the sexes of insects. Do they vary during different years?
Does he have opinions about the courtships of butterflies?
Will send a copy of his paper on Primula when it is published. [See 5997.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Doubleday |
| Date: | 1 Mar [1868] |
| Classmark: | George W. Platzman (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5966A |
Matches: 2 hits
- … February 1868 . Henry Tibbats Stainton had enclosed a copy of a letter from Doubleday with …
- … 1868 , Wallace had described female moths of Bombyx cynthia (now Samia cynthia ) as passive and receptive to the first male that appeared. Doubleday had first called CD’s attention to the existence of a form of oxlip ( Primula elatior , the Bardfield oxlip) distinct from the common oxlip in 1860, and had supplied him with seedlings (see Correspondence vol. 8, letter from Henry Doubleday, …
To H. W. Bates 15 April [1868]
Summary
CD has questions related to colour differences in the sexes of butterflies, especially in relation to HWB’s paper ["On variation in sexes of Argynnis diana", Proc. Entomol. Soc. Philadelphia 4 (1865): 204–7].
Mentions that his MS on Lepidoptera [for Descent] is longer than he intended and the information is four-fifths owed to HWB.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
| Date: | 15 Apr [1868] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6120 |
To Roland Trimen 14 April [1868]
Summary
Has tried using dealers’ price-lists as a guide to sex ratios in Lepidoptera; finds numerous cases in which the sexes bring different prices and in virtually all of them the males are cheaper. This seems to confirm the impression of the field collectors.
Wishes RT good luck with natural history in S. Africa.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Roland Trimen |
| Date: | 14 Apr [1868] |
| Classmark: | Royal Entomological Society (Trimen papers, box 21: 68) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6117 |
From H. W. Bates 20 April 1868
Summary
In addition to the drawing of a caterpillar which CD intends to use,
HWB sends information on differences of colour and pattern between the sexes of species of Papilio.
Argynnis diana and A. sagana have females that are brightly coloured, but these may be cases of protective mimicry.
| Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Apr 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 82: A42–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6132 |
From H. T. Stainton 29 February 1868
Summary
Replies to CD on proportion of sexes in butterflies, coloration of moths, and courtship. Encloses copies of letters on these subjects between HTS, Henry Doubleday, and John Hellins.
| Author: | Henry Tibbats Stainton |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Feb 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 85: B52-3; DAR 86: A16; |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5960 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Henry Doubleday to H. T. Stainton Feb. 26, 1868 I received your welcome letter this …
- … 1868] . See letter to H. T. Stainton, 18 February [1868] and n. 2. See also letter from H. T. Stainton, 20 February 1868 , in which Stainton claimed that accurate information on the proportion of the sexes could only be obtained from insects bred in captivity. In Descent 1: 311, CD reported that Henry Doubleday …
| letter | (14) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Doubleday, Henry | (3) |
| Bates, H. W. | (1) |
| Hellins, John | (1) |
| Stainton, H. T. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Doubleday, Henry | (3) |
| Bates, H. W. | (1) |
| Stainton, H. T. | (1) |
| Staudinger, Otto | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (14) |
| Doubleday, Henry | (6) |
| Bates, H. W. | (2) |
| Stainton, H. T. | (2) |
| Hellins, John | (1) |
| 1868 | (14) |
