Ɛpsilon

From Francis Walker   24 June [1862]1

5 The Grove | Highgate

June 24th.

My dear Sir,

I received your letter today.2 The larger brown fly is Empis livida, & the smaller black fly is Empis pennipes, both females. The species of Empis habitually suck flowers, but the females feed also on small Diptera & chiefly frequent flowers for that purpose.3

I shall always be glad to send you any information in my power & believe me, | Yours truly | F. Walker

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to H. G. Bronn, 30 June [1862] (Correspondence vol. 10; see n. 3, below).
2
CD’s letter has not been found.
3
Empis livida and E. pennipes are species of dance fly. These species names were added to CD’s note in DAR 70: 13–14 on the observations of his sons William Erasmus Darwin and George Howard Darwin on the pollination of Orchis maculata (a synonym of Dactylorhiza maculata, the heath spotted orchid); the note is dated 20 June 1862. CD incorporated these observations in the German translation of Orchids (Bronn trans. 1862, p. 22 n.; see Correspondence vol. 10, second enclosure to letter to H. G. Bronn, 30 June [1862]). In 1869, he published them in ‘Fertilization of orchids’, p. 142, a paper comprising revised and additional notes on orchids, keyed by page number to the first edition of Orchids (see also Collected papers 2: 139). Diptera is the order that includes mosquitoes, gnats, midges, and true flies.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10547,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10547