Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2

Name: Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2
Author: Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence

... Many thanks for all the curious facts about the unequal number of the
sexes in Crustacea, but the more I investigate this subject the deeper
I sink in doubt and difficulty. Thanks also for the confirmation of
the rivalry of Cicadae. I have often reflected with surprise on the
diversity of the means for producing music with insects, and still more
with birds. We thus get a high idea of the importance of song in the
animal kingdom. Please to tell me where I can find any account of the
auditory organs in the Orthoptera. Your facts are quite new to me.
Scudder has described an insect in the Devonian strata, furnished with
a stridulating apparatus. I believe he is to be trusted, and, if so, the
apparatus is of astonishing antiquity. After reading Landois's paper I
have been working at the stridulating organ in the Lamellicorn beetles,
in expectation of finding it sexual; but I have only found it as yet in
two cases, and in these it was equally developed in both sexes. I wish
you would look at any of your common lamellicorns, and take hold of
both males and females, and observe whether they make the squeaking or
grating noise equally. If they do not, you could, perhaps, send me a
male and female in a light little box. How curious it is that there
should be a special organ for an object apparently so unimportant as
squeaking. Here is another point; have you any toucans? if so, ask any
trustworthy hunter whether the beaks of the males, or of both sexes, are
more brightly coloured during the breeding season than at other times
of the year... Heaven knows whether I shall ever live to make use of
half the valuable facts which you have communicated to me! Your paper
on Balanus armatus, translated by Mr. Dallas, has just appeared in our
'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' and I have read it with the
greatest interest. I never thought that I should live to hear of a
hybrid Balanus! I am very glad that you have seen the cement tubes; they
appear to me extremely curious, and, as far as I know, you are the first
man who has verified my observations on this point.

With most cordial thanks for all your kindness, my dear Sir,

Yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.


CHARLES DARWIN TO A. DE CANDOLLE. Down, July 6, 1868.

My dear Sir,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2Darwin, Charles

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Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2

Darwin, Charles

Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence

... Many thanks for all the curious facts about the unequal number of the
sexes in Crustacea, but the more I investigate this subject the deeper
I sink in doubt and difficulty. Thanks also for the confirmation of
the rivalry of Cicadae. I have often reflected with surprise on the
diversity of the means for producing music with insects, and still more
with birds. We thus get a high idea of the importance of song in the
animal kingdom. Please to tell me where I can find any account of the
auditory organs in the Orthoptera. Your facts are quite new to me.
Scudder has described an insect in the Devonian strata, furnished with
a stridulating apparatus. I believe he is to be trusted, and, if so, the
apparatus is of astonishing antiquity. After reading Landois's paper I
have been working at the stridulating organ in the Lamellicorn beetles,
in expectation of finding it sexual; but I have only found it as yet in
two cases, and in these it was equally developed in both sexes. I wish
you would look at any of your common lamellicorns, and take hold of
both males and females, and observe whether they make the squeaking or
grating noise equally. If they do not, you could, perhaps, send me a
male and female in a light little box. How curious it is that there
should be a special organ for an object apparently so unimportant as
squeaking. Here is another point; have you any toucans? if so, ask any
trustworthy hunter whether the beaks of the males, or of both sexes, are
more brightly coloured during the breeding season than at other times
of the year... Heaven knows whether I shall ever live to make use of
half the valuable facts which you have communicated to me! Your paper
on Balanus armatus, translated by Mr. Dallas, has just appeared in our
'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' and I have read it with the
greatest interest. I never thought that I should live to hear of a
hybrid Balanus! I am very glad that you have seen the cement tubes; they
appear to me extremely curious, and, as far as I know, you are the first
man who has verified my observations on this point.

With most cordial thanks for all your kindness, my dear Sir,

Yours very sincerely, C. DARWIN.


CHARLES DARWIN TO A. DE CANDOLLE. Down, July 6, 1868.

My dear Sir,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2

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