Ternate
March 2nd. 1858.
My dear Mr. Bates1
When I received your very acceptable letter (a month ago) I had just written one to your brother2, which I thought I could not do better than send to you to forward to him, as I shall thereby be enabled to confine myself solely to the group you are studying & to other matters touched on in your letter. I had heard from Mr. Stevens some time ago that you had begun collecting exotic Geodephaga, but were confining yourself to one or two illustrations of each genus.3 I was sure however you would soon find this unsatisfactory. Nature must be studied in detail, and it is the wonderful variety of the species of a group, their complicated relations & their endless modifications of form size & colour, which constitute the preeminent charm of the Entomologist’s study. It is with the greatest satisfaction too, I hail your accession to the very limited number of collectors & students of Exotic insects, & sincerely hope you may be sufficiently favoured by fortune, to enable you to form an extensive collection & to devote the necessary time to its study & to ultimately to the preparation of a complete & useful work.4 Though I cannot but be pleased that you are able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you indulge in the expensive luxury of from 3 to 7 specimens! of a species.5 I should have thought that in such a very extensive group you would have found, one or at most a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of exotic insects do more than this, except where they can obtain additional specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on my collections are very interesting to me, especially as I have kept descriptions with many outline figures of my Malacca & Sarawake [sic] Geodephaga, so that with one or two exceptions I can recognize & perfectly remember every species you mention. I will first make a few remarks on your notes. Cicindela elegans is the Megalomma elegans. of Westwood & I think it quite as well entitled to be separated as the Heptadontas which last seem to me not to differ from Odontocheila.6 Is no. 61. Mac[assar]7 certainly C. vigorsii? It is certainly singular if so that I should not have found so widely a distributed species before reaching Macassar. Is 60. Mac[assar] the true C. heros? & is the true C. heros Fab. very rare? I am inclined to think it is, because the little Therates 59 Mac[assar]. is undoubtedly T. flavilabris. Fab. & fasciatus Fab (varieties) & the localities for both are "Pacific Islands" brought home I think by Labillardiere.8 In my 2nd. lot from Macassar I sent plenty of the Therates but did not find Heros again. I took however 5 additional species of true Cicindela, (one very handsome) making 11 species in all, a very large number for one locality. I fear much I have lost the pretty genus Collyris. In Macassar was only 1 species & I have never seen it in any of the islands Eastward. At Macassar I once saw a Tricondyla but the villain escaped up a tree & I vainly searched for him for a month afterwards. I shall probably however meet with him when I visit the N. of Celebes where I expect lots of fine things. The Macassar Collyris seemed to me identical with 88. Sarawak.9 The Catadromus you call Boisduvalii. Is it not the Javanese sp[ecies]. & is not the name C. tenebrioides? I got but a solitary spec[ime]n in my second season at Macassar, & but of the two rarest species of Cicindela, which you have not yet, I have sent several specimens. Many of the insects you mention as desiderata from Malacca & Sarawak are uniques in my coll[ection]. Thus I believe 6 out of my 8 species of Orthogonius are so. It is the rarest genus I know of. The larger rare Malacca Therates was taken only at the foot of Mt. Ophir [Gunung Ledang] (5 — 6 specimens) & the pretty small species was taken only during 10 days collecting on my return to Singapore from Borneo (2 — 3 spec[ime]ns) It is in the highest degree improbable that I shall ever return to Sing[apore]. or Mal[acca]. again. Numbers of the best things I got in plenty, & the Coleoptera generally run so very small that another visit would [2] not pay expenses. The smaller tricondyla & heptadonta10 from Sarawak were also I think both unique, as probably also one or two of the Collyris. I wonder you have not noticed what I consider the gem of my Geodephaga, (889. Sar[awak].)11 a Catascopus 10 lines long & very broad with a band of rich purple across the elytra shading in to the metallic green. I got only two examples one of Mr which goes to Mr Saunders by agreement.12
Soon after you receive this my 2nd. Macassar collection ought to arrive, & I think it will well repay your examination. Some account of it will be in the Zoologist by this time I dare say.13 I think it may be considered the most remarkable lot of Carabidae ever collected in the tropics in so short a time; almost all in 6 weeks at the beginning of the rains, after a previous 6 weeks of the most terrible dearth of all coleoptera. I make out about 105 species of Carabidae of which 20 are minute things under 2 lines & many under a line! Are not some of these among the smallest Carabidae known? About 40 are truncatipennes [truncatipennis], of which a dozen are lovely metallic or coloured species, — two or three very lovely. There is a very curious little thing allied to Casnonia with swollen thorax & long palpi, probably a new genus. Let me have your opinion of it. There is plenty of it sent.14 The greater part of this collection will be probably new species. I spent hours daily on my knees in wet sand & rotten leaves, hunting the little things & picking up Anthici [anthici] & Pselaphidae with the tip of my wetted finger. I shall be very much interested to have your remarks on the collection. Tell me if you think any or how many have been sent from Sing[apore]. or Sar[awak]. or are known from Java. Whether you think there are any new genera. Are the lot of little spotted species allied to our Bembidiidae (365) is a lovely thing, unique, found in foliage! It is not much use your referring to the numbers here, as I had no time to take descriptive notes. They are put only for my notes of station & habits. You will often see two or three species with the same number. This is when they were taken at the same time & place so that one note serves for all. My Aru collection was very poor in Geodephaga. Nothing remarkable but the Therates labiata & Tricondyla aptera, the two oldest known species but I believe not common in collections. I was in doubt if there are two sp[ecies]. of the Tricondyla.15 One has much redder legs. They are not sexes as I took a pair "in cop." with similar legs.16 Try if you can find any other specific difference. They are found in the same places. In Arru I did not see a Cicindela! In my small Amboyna [Ambon] coll[ection]. the Geodephaga are very few as I was too much occupied with the fine Longicorns Curculionidae & Buprestidae to search for the small ones. Now with regard to your request for notes of habits &c. I shall be most willing to comply with it to some extent, first informing you that I look forward to undertaking on my return to England a "Coleoptera Malayana"17 to contain descriptions of the known species of the whole archipelago, with a treatise an Essay on their Geog[raphical]. distribution, and an account of the habits of the genera & species from my own observations. Of course therefore I do not wish any part of my notes to be previously published, as this will be a distinctive feature of the work; so little being known of the habits stations & mode of collecting exotic coleoptera. As I have not much more room without making this a double letter I will here tell you a little about the Cicindelidae only. The true Cicindelae vary considerably in habits. Some frequent almost exclusively sunny pathways through open grounds, & even public roads, such as 41. 42. 43. & 51. Sing[apore]. & 61. 62. 64. 65. Mac[assar].18 Others are sea beach insects as the C. tenuipes18.5 & the Baly [Bali] species18.7. the former singularly agreeing in colour with the white sand of Sarawak the latter with the dark volcanic sand of its habitat. [3] Others prefer river banks. The two Lombock [Lombok] sp[ecies]. were found always a little way inland on the same coloured dark sand, but I never found them on the sea beach, so also 63. & 126 Macassar19, frequent river banks on sand of a lighter col[ou]r than that of Baly [Bali] & Lomb[ock]. but darker than that of Sarawak, as are the insects. Another n[ew]. s[pecies]19.5. in the last Mac[assar]. coll[ection]. was found on the soft shiny mud of salt creeks, with which its colour so exactly agrees that it was exact perfectly invisible except for its shadow! Such facts as these puzzled me for a long time, but I have lately worked out a theory which accounts for them naturally. The rule however is by no means without exception. The bright coloured species are visible enough wherever they are. C. Heros [heros] frequents shady path[s] in the woods settling on the ground or on the foliage & flying slowly to short distances with a distinct buzzing noise. Another sp[ecies]. sent in 2nd. coll[ection]. (313 Mac[assar].) frequents similar situations but flies much quicker; its bright golden buff spots render it very conspicuous, & it emits when captured a fine rosy odour like the Aromias [Aronias], which I have not observed in any other species of the restricted genus Cicindela. I see I must defer my notes on the other genera to my next letter as I want to say something about other matters. You appear to consider the state of Entomological literature flourishing & satisfactory; — to me it seems quite the contrary.20 The number of unfinished works & of others with false titles are disgraceful to science. Dejean’s Species General was meant to be finished but is not.21 Burmeister’s Handbook of Entomology could never have been meant to be finished on the scale it is begun on22 — it has a false title. "Annulosa Javanica"23 contains a part of the Coleoptera only — G. R. Grays grand title of "Entomology of Australia" dwindles to the smallest family (Phasmidae) of the smallest order of Insects.24 Mr Woollaston [Wollaston] never intends to complete an Insecta Maderensea why then should he give it that grand title?25 There exists not one completed work on any extensive group of Coleoptera published within the last 20 years, except those of one man (M. Lacordaire).26 There exists not a coleopterous fauna of any one tropical district, of any one extra european country! And greatest disgrace of all there exists not any work on the Coleoptera of Europe! (complete.) Is this satisfactory? Does there exist a satisfactory modern local colepterous fauna of any one country in Europe? Mulsant’s is I believe not yet finished.27 There is I understand one of Hungary but with very brief analytical characters only to the species.28 What a shame that the Entomologists of Germany & France with such a large proportion of the species at their doors have not yet produced a "Coleoptera Europae"!! Is there a Catalogue of the Coleoptera in any one of the National Museums of Europe — or any hope of one? If you go to America & wha want to know any thing of the U. S. Coleoptera what have you to guide you but scattered papers in periodicals? All this is to me very unsatisfactory.29 Lacordaires Genera deserves all praise, but it would have been much more satisfactory had he kept back the first volumes to have published all together, complete up to a given date.30 I only hope he may finish it. I trust the plates may be good, but not expensive. I admire those of Mulsant, I have his Longicorns here. Monographs of Col[eopter]a with coloured plates are luxuries — The cicindelidae [Cicindelidae] may be done. The Carabidae can not be. In Geodephaga no doubt the Amazon is superior to the E. Archipelago; — yet if the Ega31 collections were entirely left out that superiority would be by no means so apparent, & I believe the richest islands for Geodephaga are Java & Sumatra, wh[ich]. I have not visited. Bowring has a true Carabus from Java!32 Again considering the vast extent of the [4]33 Amazon region its position in the centre of a vast continent, its streams converging from the Andes for a distance of more than a thousand miles & its excessive productiveness in all departments of nature, & the wonder will be, not that these islands are inferior in one group but that they are not vastly inferior in all. The whole Archipelago coulde [sic] be set down in the forest plain of the Amazon, the separate islands could be hidden and lost in it! Again I find that in journeys, sickness & time necessarily spent in towns far from forests, I have lost one whole year out of the 3¾ I have been in the East, — yet my total species both in Coleoptera & in all Insecta compares very favourably with your brothers of a much longer period, and moreover as an experienced & persevering collector of Coleoptera he is decidedly my superior.
I think therefore on the whole we may say that the Archipelago is very rich, & will bear a comparison even with the richest parts of S. America. In the country between Ega & Peru there is work for 50 Collectors for 50 years. There are hundreds & thousands of Andean valleys every one of which would bear exploring. Here it is the same with islands. I could spend 20 years here were life long enough, but feel I cannot stand it away from home & books & collections & comforts, more than four or five, & then I shall have work to do for the rest of my life. What would be the use of accumulating materials which one could not have time to work up? I trust your brother may give us a grand and complete work on the Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley if not of all S. America.34 My paper is full so I must now conclude with best wishes
Yours faithfully │ Alfred R Wallace [signature]
F. Bates Esq.
What is the gist of Wollaston’s book on varieties &c.35 From some extracts from his "Insecta Maderensia" I have seen, I do not think much of his phisophosizing [sic] powers. What on Earth is Gosse’s "Omphalos" & what is the New Law he has discovered?36
via Southampton.
Fredk. Bates Esq
5 Napier Terrace
Aylestone Road
Leicester
England.37
A R W.
Refers to a numbered specimen collected by ARW in Singapore and Macassar as recorded in ARW's natural history notebooks.
18.5. Now Abroscelis tenuipes araneipes (Schaum, 1863).
18.7. Probably Abroscelis longipes (Fabricius, 1798).
Refers to a numbered specimen collected by ARW in Macassar as recorded in ARW's natural history notebooks.
19.5. Probably Enantiola denticollis (Horn, 1895).
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Lettersheet (WCP367.367)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1]1
Copy of an Entomological letter from A. R. Wallace
to myself (Fred[eric]k Bates2)
Ternate,3
March 2nd 1858.
My dear Mr Bates.
When I rec[eive]d your very acceptable letter (a month ago) I had just written one to your brother,4 wh[ich]: I thought I could not do better then send to you to forward to him, as I shall thereby be enabled to confine myself solely to the group you are studying & to other matters touched upon in your letter. I had heard from Mr Stevens5 some time ago that you had begun collecting exotic Geodephaga, but were confining yourself to 1 or 2 illustrations of each genus. I was sure, however, that you would soon find this unsatisfactory. Nature must be studied in detail, & it is the wonderful variety of the species of a group, their complicated relations & their endless modification of form, size and colors [sic], wh[ich]: constitute the preeminent charm of the Entomologist’s study. It is with the greatest satisfaction too, I hail your accession to the very limited number of collectors of & students of exotic insects, & sincerely [2]6 hope you may be sufficiently favored [sic] by good fortune, to enable you to form an extensive collection & to devote the necessary time to is study & ultimately to the preparation of a complete & useful work. Though I cannot but be pleased that you are able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you indulge in the expensive luxury of from 3 to 7 specimens of a sp[ecies]. I should have thought that in such a very extensive group you would have found one or, at most, a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of exotic insects do more than this, except where they can obtain additional specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on my collection are very interesting to me, especially as I have kept description with many outline figures of my Malacca [Melaka] & Sarawak Geodeph[ag]a so that with 1 or 2 exceptions, I can recognize & perfectly remember every species you mention.
I will first make a few remarks on your notes. Cic[indel]a elegans is the Megalomma id:[?] of Westwood.7 & I think it quite as well entitled to be separated as the Heptodontas wh[ich]: last seem to me not to differ from Odontocheila [3]8 — Is no 61 Mac[assa]r: certainly C. Vigorsii? It is certainly singular if so that I should not have found so widely distributed a species before reaching Macassar. Is 60 Mac[assa]r: the true C. heros? & is the true C[icindela] heros. Fab. very rare? I am inclined to think it is, because the little Therates (59 Mac[assa]r:) is undoubtedly T[herates] flavilabris Fab & fasciatus Fab (varieties) & the localities for both are "Pacific Islands" brought home I think by Labillardière.9 In my 2nd lot from Macassar10 I sent plenty of the Therates but did not find C. heros again. I took, however, 5 additional sp[ecies] of true Cicindela (one very handsome) making 11 sp[ecies] in all, a very large no. for 1 locality.
I fear much I have lost the pretty genus Collyris. In Macassar was only 1 sp[ecies]: & I have never seen it in any of the Islands Eastward. At Macassar I once saw a Tricondyla but the villain escaped up a tree & I vainly searched for him for a month afterwards. I shall probably, however meet with him when I visit the N of Celebes where I expect lots of fine things. The Macassar Collyris seemed to me identical [4]11 with 88 Sarawak. The Catadromus you call Boisduvalii is it not the Javanese sp[ecies]: & is not the name C[atadromus]. tenebrioides? (yes F. B.) I got but a solitary specimen in my 2nd season at Macassar, but of the 2 rarest sp[ecies]: of Cicindela wh[ich]: you have not yet, I have sent several specimens. Many of the insects you mention as desiderata from Malacca [Melaka] & Sarawak are uniques in my coll[ection]: — Thus I believe 6 out of my 8 sp[ecies]: of Orthogonius are so. It is the rarest genus I know of. The larger, rare Malacca [Melaka] Therates was taken only at the foot of Mount Ophir [Gunung Ledang] (5 or 6 specimens) & the pretty small sp[ecies]: was taken only during 10 days collecting on my return to Singapore from Borneo (2 or 3 specimens). It is in the highest degree improbable that I shall ever return to Sing[apore]: or Malac[ca]: again. Numbers of the best things I got in plenty, & the Coleops. [Coleoptera] generally run so very small that another visit would not pay expenses. The smaller Tricondyla & Heptadonta [sic] from Sarawak were also I think both unique, as probably also 1 or 2 of the Collyris. I wonder you have not noticed what I consider [5]12 the gem of my Geodeph[aga]: (889 Sar[awak]:) a Catascopus 10 lines long & very broad with a band of rich purple across the elytra13 shading into metallic green. I got only 2 examples 1 of wh[ich]: goes to Mr Saunders14 by agreement. Soon after you receive this my 2nd Macassar [Makassar] Coll[ection]: ought to arrive & I think it will repay your examination. Some A/ct [account] of it will be in the Zoologist15 by this time I dare say. I think it may be considered the most remarkable lot of Carabidae ever collected in the tropics in so short a time: almost all in 6 weeks at the beginning of the rains, after a previous 6 weeks of the most terrible dearth of all Coleops: [Coleoptera]. I make out ab[ou]t: 105 sp[ecies]: of Carabidae of wh[ich]: 20 are minute things under 2 lines & many under 1 line ! Are not some of these amongst the smallest Carabidae known? About 40 are truncatipennes, of wh[ich]: a doz[en]: are lovely metallic or col[oure]d sp[ecies]: — 2 or 3 very lovely. There is a very curious little thing allied to Casnonia with swollen th[ora]x: & long palpi,16 probably a new Genus. Let me have your opinion of it. There is plenty of it sent. The greater part of [6]17 this Coll[ection]: will probably be new species. I spent hours daily on my knees in wet sand & rotten leaves, hunting the little things & picking up Anthici & Pselaphidae with the tip of my wetted finger. I shall be very much interested to have your remarks on the Coll[ection]:. Tell me if you think any or how many have been sent from Sing[apore]: or Sar[awak]: or are Known from Java. Whether you think there are any new genera — Are the lot of little spotted sp[ecies]: allied to our Bembidiidae? (365) is a lovely thing, unique, found on foliage! It is not much use your referring to the Nos: [Numbers] here, as I had no time to takes descriptive notes: they are put only for my notes of station & habits. You will often see 2 or 3 sp[ecies]: with the same no: [number] this is where they were taken at the same time & place so that one note serves for all. My Arru [Aru] coll[ection]:18 was very poor in Geodephaga: Nothing remarkable but the Therates labiata & Tricondyla aptera, the 2 oldest Known sp[ecies]: but I believe not Common in Collections. I was in doubt if there were 2 sp[ecies]: of the [7]19 Tricondyla — one has much redder legs. They are not sexes as I took a pair "in cop[ulation?]" with similar legs. Try try if you can find any any other specific difference. they are found in the same places. In Arru I did not see a Cicindela! In my small Amboyna [Ambon] Coll[ection]:20 the Geodephaga are very few as I was too much occupied with the fine Longicornes [sic], Curculionidae & Buprestidae to search for the small Coleops: [Coleoptera]. Now with regard to your request for the "notes of habits" &c. I shall be most willing to comply with it to some extent, first informing you that I look forward to undertaking on my return to England a "Coleoptera Malayana"21 to contain descriptions of the Known sp[ecies]: of the whole archipelago, with an essay on their Geograph[ica]l distribution, & an A/c [account] of the habits of the genera & sp[ecies]: from my own observations. Of course therefore I do not wish any part of my notes to be previously published, as this will be a distinctive feature of the work; so little being known of the habits, stations & modes of collecting exotic Coleoptera. [8]22 As I have not much more room without making this a double letter I will here tell you a little ab[ou]t: the Cicindelidae only. The true Cicindelae vary considerably in habits: some frequent almost exclusively sunny pathways thro' open grounds, or even public roads, such as 41. 42. 43 & 51 Sing[apore]: & 61. 62. 64. 65 Mac[assar]: — others are sea-beach insects as the C[icindela] tenuipes & the Baly [Bali] species — the former singularly agreeing in color with the white sand of Sarawak the latter with the dark Volcanic sand of its habitat.
Others prefer river banks. The 2 Lombock [Lombok] sp[ecies]: were found always a little way inland on the same coloured dark sand, but I never found them on the sea-beach, so also 63 & 126 Macassar [Makassar], frequent river banks on sand of a lighter colour of than that of Baly [Bali] & Lomb[ock] [Lombok]:, but darker than that of Sarawak, as are the insects. Another n[ew]. s[pecies]. in the last Mac[assa]r [Makassar] lot was found on the soft, slimy mud of salt creeks, with wh[ich]: its colour so exactly agrees that it was perfectly invisible except from its shadow!
[9]23 Such facts as these puzzled me for a long time, but I have lately worked out a theory wh[ich]: accounts for them naturally. The rule however is by no means without exceptions. The bright col[oure]d sp[ecies]: are visible enough wherever they are. C[icindela] Heros frequents shady paths in the woods settling on the ground or on the foliage & flying slowly to short distances b with a distinct buzzing noise. Another sp[ecies]: sent in 2nd Mac[assa]r [Makassar] coll[ection]: (313 Mac[assar] [Makassar]:) frequents similar situations but flies much quicker; its bright golden-buff spots render it very conspicuous, & it emits when captured, a fine rosy odour like the Aromias, wh[ich]: I have not observed in any other sp[ecies]: of the restricted genus Cicindela. I see I must defer my notes on the other genera to my next letter as I want to say something about other matters.
You appear to consider the state of Entomological literature flourishing & satisfactory: to me it seems quite the contrary. The no: [number] of unfinished works & of others with false titles are disgraceful to Science. Dejean’s "Species Générale"24 was meant to be finished but is not. Burmeister’s "Handbook of Entomology"25 could never have been [10]26 meant to be finished on the scale it has begun on — it has a false title. "Annulosa Javanica"27 contains a part of the Coleops: [Coleoptera] only. G. R. Gray’s grand title of "Entomology of Australia"28 dwindles to the smallest family (Phasmidae) of the smallest order of insects. Mr Wollaston never intends to compete an "Insecta Maderensia",29 why then sh[oul]d: he give it that grand title? There exists not one Completed work on any extensive group of Coleops: [Coleoptera] pub[lishe]d within the last 20 years,30 except those of one man (M. Lacordaire)31 — There exists not a Coleopterous fauna of any one tropical district, of any one extra-european Country! And, greatest disgrace of all, there exists not any work on the Coleops [Coleoptera] of Europe! (complete). Is this satisfactory ? Does there exist a satisfactory modern local Coleopterous fauna of any one Country in Europe ? Mulsant’s32 is, I believe, not yet finished. There is I understand one of Hungary but with very brief analytical characters only to the species.33 What a shame that the Entomologists of Germany & France with such a large proportion of the sp[ecies]: at [11]34 their doors have not yet produced a "Coleoptera Europae"!! Is there a Catalogue of the Coleops: [Coleoptera] in any one of the National Museums of Europe, or any hope of one ? If you go to America & want to know any thing of the U. S. Coleops: [Coleoptera] what have you to guide you but scattered papers in periodicals ? All this is to me very unsatisfactory. Lacordaire’s "Genera" deserves all praise, but it would have been much more satisfactory had he kept back the first Vol[ume]s: to have pub[lishe]d all together, complete up to a given date. I only hope he may finish it. I trust the plates may be good, but not expensive. I admire those of Mulsant, I have his Longicornes here. Monographs of Coleops: [Coleoptera] with col[oure]d plates are luxuries. The Cicindelidae may be done. The Carabidae can not be. In Geodephaga no doubt the Amazon is superior to the E. Archipelago. Yet if the Ega35 collections were entirely left out that superiority would be by no means so apparent, & I believe the richest Islands for Geodephaga are Java & Sumatra, wh[ich]: I have not visited. Bowring36 has a true Carabus from Java! Again Considering the vast [12]37 extent of the Amazon region, its position in the centre of a vast continent, its streams converging from to the Andes for a distance of more than 1000 miles & its excessive productiveness in all departments of nature, & the wonder will be, not that these islands are inferior in one group but that they are not vastly inferior in all. The whole Archipelago could be set down in the forest plain of the Amazon. The separate islands could be hidden & lost in it! Again, I find that in journeys, sickness, time necessarily spent in towns far from forests, I have lost one whole year of out of the 3¾ I have been in the East, yet my total species both in Coleops: [Coleoptera] & in all Insecta compares very favorably with your brother’s of a much longer period, & moreover as an experienced & persevering collector of Coleops: [Coleoptera] he is decidedly my superior.
I think therefore on the whole we may say that the archipelago is very rich, & will bear a comparison even with the richest parts of S. America. In the Country between Ega & Peru there is work for 50 collectors for [13]38 50 years — There are hundreds & thousands of Andean Valleys every one of wh[ich]: would bear exploring. Here it is the same with Islands. I could spend 20 years here were life long enough, but feel I cannot stand it away from home & books & collections & comforts, more than 4 or 5. & then I shall have work to do for the rest of my life. What would be the use of accumulating material wh[ich]: one could not have time to work up? I trust your brother may give us a grand & complete work on the Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley,39 if not all S. America. My paper is full so I must now conclude with best wishes.
Yours faithfully | Alfred R Wallace
What is the gist of Wollaston’s book on Varieties &c?40 From some extracts from his "Insecta Maderensia" I have seen I do not think much of his philosophizing powers.
What on earth is Gosses’s "Omphalos"41 & what is the new law he has discovered?
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Transcription (WCP367.4326)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1] [p. 69]
To F. BATES
Ternate. March 2, 1858.
My dear Mr. Bates,—When I received your very acceptable letter (a month ago) I had just written one to your brother, which I thought I could not do better than send to you to forward to him, as I shall thereby be able to confine myself solely to the group you are studying and to other matters touched upon in your letter. I had heard from Mr. Stevens some time ago that you had begun collecting exotic Geodephaga,1 but were confining yourself to one or two illustrations of each genus. I was sure, however, that you would soon find this unsatisfactory. Nature must be studied in detail, and it is the wonderful variety of the species of a group, their complicated relations and their endless modification of form, size and colours, which constitute the pre-eminent charm of the entomologist's study. It is with the greatest satisfaction, too, I hail your accession to the very limited number of collectors and students of exotic insects, and sincerely hope you may be sufficiently favoured by fortune to enable you to form an extensive collection and to devote the necessary time to its study and ultimately to the preparation of a complete and useful work. Though I cannot but be pleased that you are able to do so, I am certainly surprised to find that you indulge in the expensive luxury of from three to seven specimens of a species. I should have thought that in such a very extensive group you would have found one or, at most, a pair quite sufficient. I fancy very few collectors of exotic insects do more than this, except where they can obtain additional specimens by gift or by exchange. Your remarks on my collections are very interesting to me, especially as I have kept descriptions with many outline figures of my Malacca and Sarawak Geodephaga, so that with one or two exceptions [2] [p. 70] I can recognise and perfectly remember every species you mention...
Now with regard to your request for notes of habits, etc. I shall be most willing to comply with it to some extent, first informing you that I look forward to under-taking on my return to England a "Coleoptera Malayana," to contain descriptions of the known species of the whole Archipelago, with an essay on their geographical distribution, and an account of the habits of the genera and species from my own observations. Of course, therefore, I do not wish any part of my notes to be published, as this will be a distinctive feature of the work, so little being known of the habits, stations and modes of collecting exotic Coleoptera....
You appear to consider the state of entomological literature flourishing and satisfactory: to me it seems quite the contrary. The number of unfinished works and of others with false titles is disgraceful to science....
I think... on the whole we may say that the Archipelago is very rich, and will bear a comparison even with the richest part of South America. In the country between Ega and Peru there is work for fifty collectors for fifty years. There are hundreds and thousands of Andean valleys every one of which would bear exploring. Here it is the same with islands. I could spend twenty years here were life long enough, but feel I cannot stand it, away from home and books and collections and comforts, more than four or five, and then I shall have work to do for the rest of my life. What would be the use of accumulating materials which one could not have time to work up ? I trust your brother may give us a grand and complete work on the Coleoptera of the Amazon Valley, if not of all South America.... — Yours faithfully, ALFRED R. WALLACE
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP367.5913)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP367,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP367