WCP2085

Letter (WCP2085.1975)

[1]

Brit[ish] Museum1

27 April 1867.

My dear Sir

I have got some additional material about Honey Bees — and think of publishing some supplementary remarks in the Annals2 — I asked you some time ago3 about the A. testacea4from Borneo — since I described it, similar specimens came from Flores5 — who took the latter? — and did I understand you to say that you took the insect at large? — flying visiting flowers in [2] the same way as the black specimens from Celebes.6 — I think Mr. Woodbury7 fancied that you obtained them from a nest. — I failed to make any memorandum at the time you before gave me the information — and so am obliged to trouble you again —

Yours sincerely | Fred[eric]k. Smith [signature]

Alfred Wallace Esq[uir]e. [3]8 [4]

cuckoo bees

bumble bees

____________________

Twin specimens [some] were caught flying & other from nest.

Flores. Taken by Mr. Allen.9

1
The British Museum in Bloomsbury, London was founded in 1753. Its natural history collections became the Natural History Museum in 1881.
2
Smith had originally published: F. Smith. 1865. On the Species and Varieties of the Honey-Bees belonging to the Genus Apis. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 15: 372-380. Any supplementary remarks do not appear to have been published in Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
3
This letter has not been found.
4
Smith had described Apis testacea in: Smith, F. 1857-1858. Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects collected at Sarawak, Borneo; Mount Ophir, Malacca; and at Singapore, by A. R. Wallace. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology). 2: 42-130, on 49.
5
One of the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia (the Malay Archipelago).
6
Now Sulawesi, one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia (the Malay Archipelago).
7
Woodbury, Thomas White (1818-1871). English beekeeper who introduced movable-frame beekeeping into Britain. Wrote incognito as "a Devonshire Beekeeper".
8
"Fred[eric]k Smith" written at the top of the page in pencil in a different hand. The rest of the page is blank.
9
Probably Allen, Charles Martin (1839-1892). British. ARW's assistant in the Malay Archipelago.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP2085.1975)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Paterson, Gavin [2019-12-17] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2020-03-08]

Please cite as “WCP2085,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2085