WCP372

Letter (WCP372.372)

[1]

Ceram

Nov. 25th. 1859

Dear Bates1

Allow me to congratulate you with on your safe arrival home with all your treasures; a good fortune which I trust is this time reserved for me.

I hope you will write to me & tell me your projects. Stevens hinted at your undertaking a "Fauna of the Amazon Valley". It would be a noble work, — but one requiring years of labour as of course you would wish to incorporate all existing materials & would have to spend months in Berlin Vienna & Milan & Paris to study the collections of Spix,2 Natterer[,]3 Oscolati [sic]4 Castelnau5 & others, as well [2] as most of the chief private coll[ectio]ns of Europe. I hope you may undertake it & bring it to a glorious conclusion.

I have long been contemplating such a work for this Archipelago, — but am convinced that the plan must be very limited to be capable of completion. It sh[oul]d. be little more than a synopsis on a uniform scale & plan, — descriptions in Latin only for brevity, but with copious introductions & remarks on families & genera. My idea also is that in such a work, it is the duty of an Entomologist to follow the arrangement of Lacordaire6 for the Coleoptera, — even [3] where we differ from him, — as we sh[oul]d. thus so much facilitate reference & study, his work being in every ones hands — Excuse these remarks but the subject interests me — I suppose you have now your collection pretty well arranged, & I shall be anxious to hear what is now the total amount of species in the chief families & orders of insects — You can tell me also what you think of my collections as far as you can judge in their packed away & perhaps dirty state. I now keep more duplicates than at first & hope you will reserve for me a set of your spare Longicorns, Bupresti [Buprestidae], Cicindelae[,] Cleri [Cleridae] & Brenthi [sic] [Brentidae] & some types of Genera of Carabidae & Curculios [Cucurlionidae]7 — Also in Butterflies, Papilios [4] & Pieridae. To these groups I intend to confine my general collections. I have sent a paper lately to the Linnean Soc[iety]. which gives my views of the principles of Geog[raphical]. Distribution in this Archipelago,8 — of which I hope some day to work out the details.

To judge of my coll[ectio]n. of other orders but Col[eoptera]. & Butt[erflies]. you must see Mr Saunders9 collections as he possesses my complete series, & the Orthoptera[,] Hymenoptera & Diptera10 must be now very extensive.

Your brother Frederick11 began a correspond[en]ce. with me, but does not go on.

Please write soon — I remain dear Bates │ Yours very sincerely │ Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

H.W. Bates Esq.

1
Bates, Henry Walter (1825-1892). British naturalist, explorer and close friend of ARW.
2
Spix, Johann Baptist Ritter von (1781-1826). German biologist; collected specimens in Brazil.
3
Natterer, Johann (1787-1843). Austrian naturalist; collected specimens in Brazil.
4
Osculati, Gaetano (1808-1894). Italian naturalist; collected specimens in South America and elsewhere.
5
Castelnau, Francis de (1810-1880). Also known as François Laporte. French naturalist and diplomat.
6
Lacordaire, Théodore (or Jean Théodore) (1801-1870). French-born Belgian entomologist.
7
Longicorns, (Longhorns: family Cerambycidae) Buprestidae, Cicindelae, Cleridae, Brentidae, Carabidae & Cucurlionidae are all families of Coleoptera (beetles).
8
Wallace, A. R. 1860. On the zoological geography of the Malay Archipelago. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society: Zoology. 4: 172-184.
9
Saunders, William Wilson (1809-1879). British insurance broker, entomologist and botanist.
10
The insect order Orthoptera comprises grasshoppers, locusts and crickets; Hymenoptera wasps, bees and ants, and Diptera ("two wings") the so-called true flies.
11
Bates, Frederick (1829-1903). British brewery manager and entomologist; younger brother of Henry Walter Bates.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP372.372)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Tew, Alison [2006-07-08] Transcription checked by Parfitt, Elisabeth [2012-03-26] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2018-10-26]

Published letter (WCP372.5915)

[1] [p. 72]

To H. W. BATES

Ceram. November 25, 1859.

Dear Bates,— Allow me to congratulate you on your safe arrival home with all your treasures; a good fortune which I trust is this time1 reserved for me. I hope you will write to me and tell me your projects. Stevens hinted at your undertaking a "Fauna of the Amazon Valley." It would be a noble work, but one requiring years of labour, as of course you would wish to incorporate all existing materials and would have to spend months in Berlin and Milan and Paris to study the collections of Spix, Natterer, Oscolati, Castituan and others, as well as most of the chief private collections of Europe. I hope you may undertake it and bring it to a glorious conclusion. I have long been contemplating such a work for this Archipelago, but am convinced that the plan must be very limited to be capable of completion.... — I remain, dear Bates, yours very sincerely, | ALFRED R. WALLACE.

1
A footnote here reads: "A reference to the loss of his earlier collection (p. 29)."

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP372.5915)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Congerton, John [2019-12-17]

Please cite as “WCP372,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP372