WCP4085

Letter (WCP4085.4032)

[1]

9, St. Marks' Crescent | N.W.1

Monday Evening

Dear Darwin2

I send you by post a pair of the Euchirus longimanus3 They are not quite perfect and are very rotten from being kept so long in open boxes but will perhaps answer your purpose.

I send on the other side two or three notes on sexual differences which I find in an old note book, but I fear there is nothing of interest.

I have to thank you for a most agreeable visit,4 & my wife5 was so pleased I rather think she was sorry to be obliged to come home again.

With kind regards to [2] Mrs. Darwin6 & all your family7

I remain | Yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace — [signature]

[3] Euchirus longimanus.. (Amboyna,8 Ceram9)

when in motion makes a low hissing sound caused by protrusion and contraction of the abdomen. When sezed [sic] it also produces a grating sound by rubbing the hind tibiae10 against the edges of the elytra.11

Callichroma dorycus. Boisd.12 (N. Guinea) I have a note that the ♂. of this musk beetle has a fine odour of otto of roses;13 the ♀ having only a slight disagreeable smell.

Mutilla14 sp. (Celebes15)

Winged males seize females by head or thorax, fly with them, settle & shake them violently till they submit to cop[ulation].

I have a note that the female in the genus Glenea (Longicorns)16 feigns death, the male not; — but I sh[oul]d. hardly like to be sure of this.

1
ARW’s residence from March 1865-6/20 July 1867 and early July 1868-22 March 1870.
2
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
3
The long-armed chafer beetle.
4
The Wallaces visited Down House on 12-13 September 1868 (see letter from ARW to Darwin of 5 September [1868], WCP1905.4076).
5
Wallace (née Mitten), Annie (1846-1914). Wife of ARW; daughter of William Mitten, chemist and authority on bryophytes.
6
Darwin (née Wedgwood), Emma (1808-1896). Wife and first cousin of Charles Robert Darwin.
7
At this time, the children of Charles and Emma Darwin were: William Erasmus (1839-1914), Henrietta Emma (1843-1927), George Howard (1845-1912), Elizabeth (1847-1926), Francis (1848-1925), Leonard (1850-1943), and Horace (1851-1928).
8
An island in Indonesia, part of the Moluccas, or Maluku Islands.
9
Now Seram, an island in Indonesia, part of the Moluccas, or Maluku Islands.
10
The fourth of the five joints of the leg of an insect, that between the femur and the tarsus (OED).
11
The outer hard wing-cases of a coleopterous insect (beetles) (OED).
12
A reference to Boisduval, Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour De (1799-1879). French lepidopterist and botanist.
13
A very fragrant, volatile, essential oil obtained from the petals of the rose (OED).
14
A genus of wasp.
15
Now Sulawesi, an Indonesian island.
16
A genus of longhorn beetle.

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP4085.4032)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Darwin Correspondence Project [2012-07-02] Transcription checked by Costa, Leslie [2020-06-09]

Please cite as “WCP4085,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 24 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4085