To Frederick Bates 26 June [1870?]1
6. Queen Anne St | London W
June 26th
Dear Sir
It is extremely kind of you to remember my request about Trox.2 Unfortunately I have left home for a week, & the beetles have been forwarded here. I have opened them & they look very lively. But I have no microscopes here or other means of investigation. I have put a few in a separate Box & will feed & take home, & will soon take or send the remainder to your brother. 3
I am rather in despair how to observe them, for they sham dead when touched, & do not like most other beetles seem at all inclined to stridulate.
With very sincere thanks | Pray believe me | Yours truly obliged | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Summary
Thanks for Trox beetles which have been forwarded [to London], but unfortunately CD has no microscope here. Is "in despair how to observe them … they sham dead" and are not inclined to stridulate.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7245A
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Frederick Bates
- Sent from
- London, Queen Anne St, 6
- Source of text
- DAR 185: 121
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7245A,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7245A.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18
