Ɛpsilon

To ?   20 August 1881

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

Aug 20th 1881

Dear Sir

I am not sure whether your difficulty relates to a fly turning upside down in the air, or to its adhesion to the ceiling.1 If the former I can throw no light on the case, but do not see any special difficulty in the act.— With respect to adhesion, this is effected by viscid matter secreted by hairs on the pads or soles of the feet. You will find a short, but clear account of this structure in “The Anat. & Phys. of the Blow-Fly by B. T. Lowne.—1870”2

Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
Neither the letter to which this is a reply, nor any other letter on this subject has been found.
2
Benjamin Thompson Lowne. On the fluid secreted by the foot pads of the blowfly, Musca vomitoria (a synonym of Calliphora vomitoria), see Lowne 1870, pp. 19–22.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13292,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13292