Darwin, C. R. to Whitby, M. A. T.
- +
Thanks for a suite of male and female specimens of Lepidoptera. Lack of difference in size of wings surprises CD; the female's being smaller than male's in early growth is new to him. Will ask a friend in India for comparable facts.
Summary Add
Transcription
Down Farnborough | Kent
Oct 14
Dear Madam
I am extremely much obliged by your kindness in sending me so capital a suite of male & female specimens. I am surprised at their not being a marked difference in the size of their wings: what you tell me of the wings of the female being smaller than those of the male, in their early growth is quite new to me. I hope to get a friend to enquire how these facts are with the species in India.
I am sincerely grateful for your kind promise to make further observations, on the points which interest me next summer.
Pray believe me, dear Madam | Yours truly obliged | C. Darwin
- +
- f1 1128.f1
See letter to M. A. T. Whitby, 2 September [1847], for CD's interest in variation in the moths raised from silkworms. - +
- f2 1128.f2
Cited in Variation 1: 303. Mrs Whitby's letter has not been found. - +
- f3 1128.f3
See letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 May 1848.