To Frederick Smith   [before 9 March 1858]1

[Down]

(1) In your work on Bees, you state that you have seen stray workers inhabiting the nest of a distinct species.2 Have you ever seen a stray fertile female Bombus inhabiting the nest of other species?3

(2) In Ants, which do not make slaves, have you ever seen stray workers of one species inhabiting the nest of another species?4

(3) Do you believe that Formica sanguinea always & invariably makes slaves; or is it only an occasional yet frequent instinct?5

(4) In relation to the habit of F. nigra & cunicularia, when acting as slaves to to F. rufescens, of feeding their masters, do you know whether F. nigra & cunicularia actually feed their own Queens or males in their own nests? or do the Queens & males of these species feed themselves on food brought by the workers?6

1
CD evidently sent Smith this list of queries, which Smith answered and returned. The date is based on the inclusion of information from the memorandum in chapter 10 of CD’s species book (see n. 4, below). CD recorded the completion of the chapter on 9 March 1858 (‘Journal’; Appendix II).
2
F. Smith 1855.
3
Smith wrote ‘never’ on the letter.
4
Smith wrote: ‘Not stray workers—there are communities of Myrmica nitidula & M. muscorum that live in harmony with Formica rufa I never saw stray workers in nests of non-slavemaking species—’. CD included this information as a note to his discussion of slave-making ants (Natural selection, p. 511n. 1).
5
Smith wrote: ‘I believe always I never myself met with a community without numbers of other species (say about eight in twenty)—no one has recorded any different habit—’.
6
Smith wrote: ‘This question I cannot answer—as I never saw slaves entering or issuing from the nests of their masters I am induced to believe they are employed in carry in the eggs brood &c above or below in the nests as the temperature requires also in enlarging the nest &c—the food of the community appears to be supplied by the workers of sanguinea alone—I have seen hundreds of them on young larch trees attending on a black swollen Aphis.’

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.1 makes] after del ‘tak’
4.2 of feeding] ‘of’ over ‘—’
4.2 masters] interl
4.3 actually] interl
4.4 of these species] interl
4.4 themselves] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2235A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2235A