From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Henry Doubleday
Date:
8 Jan [1857]
Source of text:
Dr Heather Whitney (private collection)
Summary:
Thanks for a kind note, and asks not to answer until better.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Showing 1–4 of 4 items
Thanks for a kind note, and asks not to answer until better.
Sends specimens of Tortrix, which illustrate the extraordinary variation of markings in two or three species. In every family of Lepidoptera there seem to be species extremely prone to vary and in some localities they vary more than in others.
Have all varieties been bred from the same set of eggs so that there can be no doubt they are all the same species?
The variations of Peronea caused A. H. Haworth and J. F. Stephens to create 30 or 40 species based on colour and markings. HD was first to be convinced these would be reduced to two.
Discusses species that closely resemble one another;
cites species that differ in variation in different localities;
in some double-brooded species the broods differ markedly in size and colour.
Encloses his list of varieties of Peronea.