WCP2158

[1]

Thornhill

Oct. 31^st 1879

Dear Sir,

In answer to your enquiry "Are there any species or well marked varieties of Coleoptera peculiar to the British Isles?" I reply, there are no long established and undeniably valid species peculiar to Britain; there are many small species recorded as yet only from there — in the Trichopterygida alone twenty species — but this is in all probability merely the result of discrepant amounts of study having been devoted to the groups to which they belong, in Britain and on the Continent; I fully expect that every valid species even of the most minute nature that occurs in this country will ultimately be found out of it. [2]] As regards varieties, the question is not so easily or confidently to be answered: Comparatively little has been done in a systematic or available manner, in the study of variation of species in the Coleoptera, and I cannot therefore either give you a positive answer myself or indicate any source where you might obtain such. Although I could not mention any striking variety peculiar to Britain, yet I have an impression that the range of variations of certain species would prove to be considerably different here to what it is outside of our islands — such impression however is not of much value.

I am, | Yours very truly | D. Sharp.¹ [signature]

A. R. Wallace Esq.