WCP340

[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