WCP340

Letter (WCP340.340)

[1]

Neath

April 11th 1846

D[ea]r. Sir

I shall be most happy to exchange lists of captures with you each month as you propose. Your "Throscus"1 is a nice capture acquisition as it belongs to an interesting family — I find the common species here different in many respects from those of Leicester, and expect to make a great many good captures during the summer. I have recommenced a plan2 which I began 2-3 years ago but discontinued. That of keeping a Natural History Journal. A sort of day Book in which I insert all my captures in every branch of Natural Hist[ory]. with the day of the month, locality &c. and insert add any remarks I have to make on specific characters, habits, &c &c. I am convinced it is a most excellent plan, & after a few years becomes most interesting, as it enables you to compare without trusting to memory alone, the curious facts concerning the periodical appearance of insects &c. their plenty or scarcity in different years, the times & duration of their appearances, as [2] affected by meteorological considerations &c. &c. The following are my the principal coleoptera I have taken this season.

1846

March.

x Rhagium Inquisitor — common under bark
x Helops striatus — plentiful d[itt]o. (oak).
x Tricoderma [Trichoderma] pubescens3 plentiful —
x Meloe Proscarabaeus vulgaris — grassy banks
x Steropus Ethiops? I am doubtful about this species — it is plentiful here
x Platynus angusticollis — very common under bark moss, & stones
x Pogonus chalceus — common under stones or salt marshes
x Calathus fuscus — under stones, Crymlin [sic] Burrows4
Gyrinus bicolor (1) under stone side of pool nr sea[?]
x Phylan gibbus — plentiful under stones on Crymlin [sic] Burrows.
x Amara convexior — with d[itt]o.
x Anchomenus albipes — under stones
Cassida? — under bark rather redder than Helops striatus — throughout
Otiorhynchus sulcatus (1) under stone
April4 Adelosia picea (1)
["] Abax striola — (3) most probably common
["] Leistus spinibarbis (1) under stone in wood
Opatrum tibiale — Crymlin [sic] Burrows.4
Onthophagus Dilwynii — (3) Burrows
Carabus granulatus — plentiful

[3] Those marked with a x I have spare specimens of — I think with this beginning I have a good prospect of an interesting & successful season. I have taken besides Peryphus nitidulus, oiceoptoma thoracica and numerous Brachyelytra for naming which latter in particular I find Spry’s5 figures of the greatest service — they are so beautifully accurate in the general form & proportions as well as in the more minute particulars.

I was much pleased6 to find you so well appreciated "Lyell"7 — I first read "Darwin’s Journal" 3 or 4 years back8 & have lately reread it — as the Journal of a scientific traveller it is second only to "Humbolts [sic] personal narrative"9 as a work of general interest perhaps superior to it — He is an ardent admirer & most able supporter of Mr Lyell’s10 views — His style of writing I very much admire, so free from all labour, affectation, or egotism & yet so full of interest & original thought — I am now reading, & with shame as an Entomologist I [4] confess it, for the first time, Kirby & Spence's Entomology11 which I find a most talented & interesting work — When I have got through the whole of it I may have a remark or two to make on it.

I quite envy you who have friends near you attached to the same pursuits. I know not a single person in this little town who studies any one branch of natural History so that I am all alone in my glory in this respect. We have a pretty good Library but they will have no works but those of general interest; and there is a Philosophical Society with a very nice little Museum but they have very little money to spare for books — In the library of the Phil. Soc. at Swansea they have some very good works on Natural History but unfortunately scarcely one on Entomology — How is it you get so many good works in the Library at Leicester? — Be so kind as to tell me in your next the title of the catalogue with which you label your Coleoptera — I had intended to make a few remarks on representation & analogy but finding I am out of paper must leave [5] them for another time & hoping to hear from you soon remain

Yours Sincerely | Alfred R Wallace [signature]

Mr H Bates

Leicester

1
Throscidae, a family in the order Coleoptera. Common names include "Small False Click-beetles".
2
From "a plan" to "duration of their appearances" at the foot of the page is marked by a vertical blue pencil line in the left margin.
3
There is a long upwardly curved dash after "Tricoderma pubescens — plentiful" possibly indicating that the location "(oak)" of Helops striatus also applies to T. pubescens.
4
Crymlyn Burrows is an area of sand-dunes at the mouth of the River Neath.
5
Shuckard, W.E. (Ed.). 1840. The British Coleoptera Delineated, Consisting of Figures of all the Genera of British Beetles. Drawn in Outline by W. Spry. M.E.S. Edited by W.E. Shuckard, Librarian, R. S. London: W. Crofts.
6
The section from "I was much pleased" to "I am now reading" is marked by a vertical blue pencil line in the left margin.
7
Lyell, Charles. 1830-1833. Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation. 3 vols. London: John Murray.
8
Darwin, C. R. 1839. Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle. London: Henry Colburn.
9
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1814-1829. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, During the Years 1799-1804. By Alexander de Humboldt, and Aimé Bonpland; with maps, plans, &c. Written in French by Alexander de Humboldt, and translated into English by Helen Maria Williams. 7 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.
10
Lyell, Charles (1797-1875). British lawyer and geologist.
11
Kirby, William and Spence, William. 1815- 1826. An Introduction to Entomology : Or Elements of the Natural History of Insects. 4 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP340.340)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Murphy, Will [2011-07-08] Transcription checked by Parfitt, Elisabeth [2012-05-10] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2018-08-08]

Please cite as “WCP340,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 16 January 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP340