WCP347

Letter (WCP347.347)

[1]

Neath

August1 1846

D[ea]r Sir

I have been expecting to hear from you for some time — About two months ago I sent you a box of Insects & a letter separately — One of which at least[?] I presume you have received.2

I trust nothing very calamitous has befallen you to retard your Entomological correspondence.

I have not done much of late — the weather has been really unfavourable — on fine days the "painted lady" [2] Brimstone, peacock & Admiral are all abundant, also Hipparchia semele on dry hills, the burrows3 & stony banks but I have not yet succeeded in taking a good series for myself, from their[?] rapid motion & shyness — I have at last taken a pair of Cicindela maritima, they do not seem at all abundant this year as Mr Dilwyn [Dillwyn]4 says they generally are — I have not however been down to the Burrows lately — Geotrupes sylvatica [sylvaticus] is abundant now[.] I have also taken G. vernalis — I have been [3] very unsuccessful hitherto with the Chrysomelidae — A pair of C. varians & f[emale][?] C. Hyperici being all I have taken —

I have taken a good many curious Diptera & Hymenoptera5 & have received a few Lepidoptera from a friend (not an Entomologist so they are bad specimens) in Georgia. U.S[.] — 3 or 4 papilios and a fine green Bombyx6 with long tails to the hinder wings[.]

[a sketch of a moth appears here with the following text to the lower right of the drawing: "this but double the size —"]

[4] I hope to have some more & in better condition soon —

I am very unfortunate in Lepidoptera a fine Chrysalis of Stauropus fagi which I have kept since last year has not come out & is apparently dead as is also a larva of the same I had this year.

Several larva of Acronycta alni? have died — & I have now a pupa of Saturnia (the Emperor) which I fear is likewise gone — I have taken some nice Bembidiidae [;] Tachypus bipunctatus, T. striatus & T. pallidipennis — also Clivina collari. I must now conclude & hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Mr. H. Bates.

1
ARW gives no day-date here.
2
Possibly WCP1274: ARW to Henry Walter Bates, dated 9 June 1846, in which ARW states his intention of sending specimens to Bates.
3
Crymlyn Burrows, an area of sand-dunes at the mouth of the River Neath. See WCP341_L341.
4
Dillwyn, Lewis Weston (1778-1855). British porcelain manufacturer, naturalist and Member of Parliament.
5
With the exception of the orders Diptera (true flies) and Hymenoptera (which includes sawflies, wasps and ants) all other insects mentioned are either Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), or Coleoptera (beetles).
6
Papillio is a genus of Swallowtail butterfly, Bombyx a genus of Silkmoth.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP347.347)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Barton, Michael [2012-02-16] Transcription checked by Moody, Liz [2012-06-20] Transcription checked by Beccaloni, George [2012-11-26] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2018-08-08]

Please cite as “WCP347,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP347