Ɛpsilon

From John Lubbock   5 August [1869]1

15, Lombard Street, E.C.

5 Aug.

My dear Mr. Darwin

The left hand antenna of Labidocera consists of simple tapering joints as you say, but the number is the same on both sides.2 Indeed the right hand one in some species seems to have fewer segments in consequence of coalescence.

One of the hinder, generally the hindermost leg is often converted into a forceps, & this always on the right side.3 I have examined hundreds, I might say thousands, & never met with an exception—that is I never saw the left leg modified instead of the right.

I cannot answer your question about the Myriapods offhand, but will gladly lend you the Suites a Buffon if you care to have it.4

One pair of the legs is I know in many species sexually modified.

In the Entomostraca the males are very frequently smaller than the females, this is especially the case in the parasitic Copepods.5

I am afraid I shall not get to see you before Exeter as I am off to open a tumulus on Thursday next6

Believe me | Yours most sincerely | John Lubbock

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to John Lubbock, 3 August 1869.
3
CD cited this information in Descent 1: 329.
4
See letter to John Lubbock, 3 August 1869. Lubbock refers to Walckenaer and Gervais 1837–47. In Descent 1: 339–40, CD mentioned Lithobius, the female of which has prehensile appendages for holding the male during intercourse, as one of the few well-marked instances of sexual differences in the Myriapoda; he gave Walckenaer and Gervais 1837–47, 4: 19, as the authority.
5
See letter to John Lubbock, 3 August 1869 and n. 6. In Descent 1: 332, CD said that Entomostraca were an exception to the general rule in crustaceans that males were larger than females, but did not cite Lubbock.
6
Lubbock attended the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Exeter from 18 to 25 August 1869 as a vice-president of the biology section (Report of the thirty-ninth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Exeter). On 14 August, he took part in the excavation of a prehistoric structure recently discovered at Cwm on the Gower peninsula, Wales (Lubbock 1870).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6854,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6854