To Japetus Steenstrup 3 January [1852]
Down Farnborough Kent
Jany. 3d.
My dear Sir
I know well that I have no excuse for troubling you, but you once most kindly said you would compare any specimens with Spenglers;1 if you would now do so, it would be a very great favour.
1st. Is the Lepas mitra of Spengler a Conia or Tetraclita of Schumacher;2 that is have the walls of the shell many rows of tubes, like the two valves sent? Is L. mitra white? is it narrowly ribbed like these two valves? If L. mitra be a Tetraclita, then I believe these valves belong to this species.
2d. I send two species of Balani, large & small, adhering together:— are either of these the Lepas purpurea of Spengler or its variety, or again are either Lepas balanoides var b lineis rubris.3 The difference between the two specimens sent, is great: if you will break the larger you will find the walls are not tubular only internally ribbed, & the edges of the radii (= areæ depressæ = areæ interjectæ) are quite smooth; and the margin, as seen without disarticulation, rounded.— In the smaller specimens the walls are tubular & the edges of the radii crenated or toothed. In the larger specimen the anterior valves of the operculum are longitudinally striated or furrowed. Without one specimen of Spenglers be disarticulated, it will be hardly possible to identify the species. My specimens may be destroyed.
In my letter thanking you for your most kind present of Xenobalanus4 I asked you kindly to inform me where the name is published, & the habitat of the species.—
My volume on the Pedunculated Cirripedes will soon be distributed by the Ray Society: I have given, some curious facts, I think, on the sexes of some Cirripedes.—
With the highest respect | I remain Dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin To | Professor Steenstrup | The Museum | Copenhagen.
It is quite possible that the specimens sent may not belong to either L. purpurea or balanoides var b. but I think they must.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Living Cirripedia (1854): A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species. The Balanidæ (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidæ, etc. By Charles Darwin. London: Ray Society. 1854.
Schumacher, Christian Frederick. 1817. Essai d’un nouveau système des habitations des vers testacés. Copenhagen.
Spengler, Lorenz. 1790. Beskrivelse og Oplysning over den hidindtil lidet udarbeidede Slœge af Mangeskallede Konchylier, som Linnæus har kaldet Lepas, med tilsøiede nye og ubeskrevne Urter. Skrivter af Naturhistorie-Selskabet 1: 158–212.
Summary
Asks JS to compare cirripede specimens with those of Lorenz Spengler to establish comparative nomenclature.
Requests reference to article describing Xenobalanus.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1469
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Johannes Japetus Smith (Japetus) Steenstrup
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen (NKS 3460 4to)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1469,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1469.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5