Ɛpsilon

From Henry Walter Bates   8 June 1869

Royal Geographical Society | 15, Whitehall Place, S.W.

June 8 1869

My dear Mr Darwin

I am ashamed to say that my brother Entomologists have almost nothing to offer you in statistics of sexes of bred insects.

Last evening there was a Meeting of the Society & I took the opportunity of asking all the practical Entomologists individually if they had done anything towards answering the appeal made to them some months ago & I found they had done nothing.1 There was only one exception & I am promised the results of enumeration by one gentleman a Mr Buckler, which as soon as I receive I will forward to you.2

I trust this glorious weather finds you well & in happy working condition

Yours sincerely | H W Bates

I have had a fearfully busy season—in Geography3

1
Bates had first asked the members of the Entomological Society of London on CD’s behalf for information on the proportion of the sexes in insects in February 1868 (see Correspondence vol. 16, letter from H. W. Bates, 18 February 1868).
2
See memorandum from William Buckler, [after 8 June 1869]. CD gave Buckler’s results from rearing seventy-four species of Lepidoptera in 1869 in Descent 1: 312.
3
Bates was assistant secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6778,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6778