9, St. Mark’s Crescent
Regent’s Park
London. N.W.
Jan[uar]y. 26th.1870
Sir
Dr. John L. Le Conte1 has recommended me to write to you,2 to ascertain if the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge Massachusetts,3 would wish to purchase a collection of Insects of old all orders formed in South Australia during the last 30 years by my cousin T. A. Wilson [sic] Esq.4 & which he is now obliged to part with.
The Collection consists approximately [2]
of the following specimens & species
species | specimens | ||
Coleoptera | 2650 | 7500 | |
Orthoptera | 130 | 200 | |
Neuroptera | 100 | 200 | |
Hymenoptera | 600 | 1000 | |
Lepidoptera | 400 | 800 | |
Homoptera &[c]. | 200 | 500 | |
Diptera — | 100 | 300 | |
Duplicates — | ... | 500 | |
4180 | 11,000 |
About three fourths of these are from the comparatively little known colony of South Australia, and as they form an entire private collection of an amateur resident there [3] are many unique & they are mostly in fine condition.
To make the collection more valuable, I would if you desired it have all the species authentically named by comparison with types in English collections, also indicating those wh[ich]. appear to be new.
For the entire collection thus arranged, & packed for transmission to America, the price would be £200 which is about 4½d a specimen and less than a shilling per species. [4]
Should you not wish the whole, I sh[oul]d. be glad to receive an offer for any part of the collection.
It will probably arrive in the spring or summer.
I remain | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Dr. Hagen.5
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP5225.5753)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP5225,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5225