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To A. S. Packard   23 November 1879

Down, | Beckenham, Kent | (Railway Station | Orpington S.E.R.)

Nov. 23rd. 1879

Dear Sir.

I never heard of bees being in any way carnivorous, and the fact is to me incredible.

Is it possible that the Bees opened the bodies of the Plusias to suck the nectar contained in their stomachs?1 Such a degree of reason would require repeated confirmation and would be very wonderful. I hope that you or some one will attend to the subject.2

My dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin.

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1
See letter from A. S. Packard, 30 October 1879 and n. 1. Packard had described honey-bees apparently feeding on moths of the species Plusia precationis (a synonym of Autographa precationis, the common looper moth).
2
Packard included the full text of this letter, as well as responses from Hermann Müller and Asa Gray, in his article on the subject in American Naturalist (Packard 1880, p. 50).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12333,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12333