To John Lubbock [November 1858]
Summary
Praise for abstract of JL’s paper on insects ["On the ova and pseudova of insects", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 9 (1857–9): 574–83].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | [Nov 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 263: 25 (EH 88206474) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2331 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Praise for abstract of JL’s paper on insects ["On the ova …
- … and pseudova of insects", Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 9 (1857–9): 574–83]. …
- … John. 1859. On the ova and pseudova of Insects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal …
- … was general or applied to last-named insect, & I have marked place with pencil & I think …
- … Since many of the known cases were from insects, he intended to review the process of egg- …
From Amy Ruck to Francis Darwin? 6 July 1874
Summary
Information about insects on Pinguicula leaves.
| Author: | Amy Richenda (Amy) Ruck; Amy Richenda (Amy) Darwin |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | 6 July 1874 |
| Classmark: | DAR 59.1: 71 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9534G |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Information about insects on Pinguicula leaves. …
From J. I. Rogers to Francis Darwin 29 March 1878
Summary
JIR’s "theory" of sensitive plants published in an anonymous letter he sent to the Field 2½ years ago. Mechanisms for protection against insects in sensitive plants.
| Author: | John Innes Rogers |
| Addressee: | Francis Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Mar 1878 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 197 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11453 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … to the Field 2½ years ago. Mechanisms for protection against insects in sensitive plants. …
- … in Mimosa pudica helped to protect the plant from crawling insects such as caterpillars. …
- … while rendering the visits of creeping insects difficult appeared rather to facilitate …
- … something uncanny about it. Though winged insects need have no fear of falling, a movement …
- … not Cotyledons very rarel
〈 y〉 attacked by insects &〈 do〉 not their depredations commence at …
To J. D. Hooker 29 July [1860]
Summary
Casual observations on Drosera.
Wants to know author of good review of Origin in London Review [& Wkly J. Polit. 1 (1860): 11–12, 32–3, 58–9].
Athenæum will reprint Gray’s discussion.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 29 July [1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 70 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2880 |
Matches: 9 hits
- … to catch the pollinia and attach them to an insect’s proboscis ( Orchids , pp. 136–7). …
- … and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. …
- … myself with a few observations on the insect-catching power of Drosera; & I must consult …
- … is an insectivorous plant that catches insects by the movement of sticky hairs on its …
- … surprised by finding how large a number of insects were caught by the leaves of the common …
- … on a heath in Sussex. I had heard that insects were thus caught, but knew nothing further …
- … expanded leaves, and on thirty-one of these dead insects or remnants of them adhered … …
- … Many plants cause the death of insects, for instance the sticky buds of the horse- …
- … for the special purpose of catching insects, so that the subject seemed well worthy of …
From G. C. Oxenden 1 August 1864
Summary
Spent two days watching Epipactis palustris in a bog. Never saw a moth.
Thinks "Suddenism" and not "Graduality" is the great Law of Nature.
| Author: | George Chichester Oxenden |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Aug 1864 |
| Classmark: | DAR 173: 62, 66 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4581 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. …
- … and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. …
- … the marsh orchid Epipactis palustris by insects in June 1861 (see Correspondence vol. 9, …
- … Oxenden reported that he had observed no insects visiting the flowers. CD discussed the …
- … on the Bromley Hill-Side, the Especial Marsh Insect which waits upon this Epipactis w d . …
- … is very abundantly haunted by Insects— With most kind regards | G. Chichester Oxenden …
- … made by his son William Erasmus, of insects visiting the species. Oxenden’s assistance in …
To Henry Walter Bates 11 February [1868]
Summary
Asks about proportions of male to female insects.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
| Date: | 11 Feb [1868] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5858 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Asks about proportions of male to female insects. …
- … 1871. Smith, Kenneth G. V. 1987. Darwin’s insects: Charles Darwin’s entomological notes. …
- … good species to engrave. For instance is any insect better than common Stag-Beetle to show …
- … remember any cases whatever of female insects of any order (except in parthenogenetic …
From T. H. Farrer 26 May 1870
Summary
Not discouraged by F. Müller’s Passiflora.
Observations on insects visiting barberries.
| Author: | Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 May 1870 |
| Classmark: | DAR 164: 63 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7202 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Not discouraged by F. Müller’s Passiflora . Observations on insects visiting barberries. …
- … end is to place the pollen on successive insects, ready to be carried by each to another …
- … that the stamens move, when touched by insects, so as to bring the open anthers in contact …
- … old places, ready, when there is more nectar and another insect, again to spring forward. …
Curtis, William. 1771. Instructions for collecting and preserving insects, particularly moths and butterflies. London.
Matches: 1 hit
- … Instructions for collecting and preserving insects, particularly moths and butterflies. …
Beal, William James. 1868a. Agency of insects in fertilizing plants. American Naturalist 1: 254–60.
Matches: 1 hit
- … Beal, William James. 1868a. Agency of insects in fertilizing plants. American Naturalist …
Stanek, V. J. 1969. The pictorial encyclopedia of insects. London, New York, Sydney, Toronto: Paul Hamlyn.
Matches: 1 hit
- … V. J. 1969. The pictorial encyclopedia of insects. London, New York, Sydney, Toronto: Paul …
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1867d. The disguises of insects. Hardwicke’s Science Gossip 3: 193–8.
Matches: 1 hit
- … Alfred Russel. 1867d. The disguises of insects. Hardwicke’s Science Gossip 3: 193–8. WBB4 …
Westwood, John Obadiah. 1831. Hermaphrodite insects. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4: 434–5.
Matches: 1 hit
- … John Obadiah. 1831. Hermaphrodite insects. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 4: 434– …
To Otto Zacharias 17 April [1878]
Summary
Doesn’t know anything about the insects in question, but has sent the photographs on to an expert in London.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Otto Zacharias |
| Date: | 17 Apr [1878] |
| Classmark: | University of Southern California Libraries, Special Collections, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library (Collection no. 0204, Lion Feuchtwanger papers, Box 01) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11478F |
From Benjamin Dann Walsh 1 March 1865
Summary
Sends his paper on "Willow-galls" [Proc. Entomol. Soc. Philadelphia 3 (1864): 543–644].
Lengthy criticism of Agassiz’s views on species as stated in his Essay on classification [1857].
Interested by CD’s trimorphism in Lythrum. Thinks some great mystery may lie in the fact that in some genera, some species are tri-, some di-, and some monomorphic, and in other genera, Apis, Vespa, Bombus, all the known species are dimorphic.
| Author: | Benjamin Dann Walsh |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 1 Mar 1865 |
| Classmark: | Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4778 |
Matches: 15 hits
- … and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. …
- … Henry Walter. 1861. Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley. Lepidoptera : …
- … Thaddeus William. 1841. A report on the insects of Massachusetts, injurious to vegetation. …
- … 1823–4. Descriptions of the Coleopterous insects collected in the late expedition to the …
- … be ravished , nor indeed can any other
♀ insect that I know of. Before copulation can take … - … been working on a large Collection of Insects from the Rocky Mountains & have partially …
- … author of an influential report on the insects of Massachusetts ( Harris 1841 ), and had …
- … flowers accessible to cross-pollination by insects and capable of producing seeds, Mohl’s …
- … Walsh 1864–5 ) and his article ‘On the insects, coleopterous, hymenopterous, and …
- … Meinert’s article on reproduction in insect larvae ( Meinert 1864 ). Meinert confirmed …
- … Louis Agassiz’s statement that the insects of the temperate zone of North America …
- … argued that the similarities between the insects of the two continents were best explained …
- … of natural selection. Arguing that individual insects with a strong tendency to use their …
- … butterflies’: [Review of "Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", by Henry …
- … a review of his Book on the Amazonian insects in Silliman’s Journal a year or two ago, & …
From Hermann Crüger 23 April 1863
Summary
Observations on Catasetum.
Figs require insects in order to set seed.
| Author: | Hermann Crüger |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Apr 1863 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 276, DAR 205.8: 68 (Letters) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4124 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Observations on Catasetum . Figs require insects in order to set seed. …
- … by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. …
- … and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. …
- … p 60. I am firmly convinced that without insects Figs will rarely or never give seeds, but …
- … to believe that they are fertilised by insects as foreigners even from neighbouring places …
- … Orchid setting a single seed-vessel. And still insects commit sometimes errors, as it is …
To James Drummond 16 May 1860
Summary
Asks JD to observe Leschenaultia formosa to verify CD’s hypothesis of how it is fertilised. Also suggests an experiment to determine whether it is fertilised by nocturnal insects.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Drummond |
| Date: | 16 May 1860 |
| Classmark: | J. S. Battye Library of Western Australian History, State Library of Western Australia (Accession 2275A) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2803 |
Matches: 6 hits
- … Also suggests an experiment to determine whether it is fertilised by nocturnal insects. …
- … possibility. In the Leschenaultia, if insects open the indusium in the manner in which I …
- … experiments to ascertain the role of insects in facilitating the pollination of clover and …
- … the plant fertilised? My belief is that insects in creeping in to suck the copious nectar …
- … this plant may be visited by nocturnal insects, it would be a very interesting experiment …
- … freely than plants left to the visits of insects. — This may appear a trifling enquiry to …
From L. C. Harrison [22 August 1874]
Summary
Sends specimens of Pinguicula with insects adhering. [See Insectivorous plants, p. 369.]
| Author: | Lucy Caroline Wedgwood; Lucy Caroline Harrison |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [22 Aug 1874] |
| Classmark: | DAR 58.1: 81–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9606 |
From T. V. Wollaston [12 April 1857]
Summary
Lists groups of insects absent from the Madeiran fauna.
| Author: | Thomas Vernon Wollaston |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [12 Apr 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 139 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2076 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … Lists groups of insects absent from the Madeiran fauna. …
- … preparing the Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira in the collection of the …
- … Insecta Maderensia; being an account of the insects of the islands of the Madeiran group . …
- … Vernon. 1857. Catalogue of the coleopterous insects of Madeira in the collection of the …
- … of the instances w h . I enumerated of wingless insects: they do not interest them; & all …
- … in Bedford Row. — I am not aware that insects will ever “fight for their females”. I know …
- … with CD that wings would be disadvantageous to insects on these windy islands (pp. 86–7). …
| letter | (1813) |
| bibliography | (121) |
| people | (54) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (928) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (87) |
| Gray, Asa | (41) |
| Müller, Fritz | (33) |
| Müller, Hermann | (30) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (864) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (174) |
| Gray, Asa | (53) |
| Fox, W. D. | (33) |
| Lyell, Charles | (32) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1791) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (261) |
| Gray, Asa | (94) |
| Müller, Fritz | (63) |
| Bates, H. W. | (49) |
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Insectivorous Plants
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Plants that consume insects Darwin began his work with insectivorous plants in the mid 1860s, though his findings would not be published until 1875. In his autobiography Darwin reflected on the delay that…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Questions | Experiment Plants that consume insects Darwin began his work …
Orchids
Summary
Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography, ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my…
Matches: 6 hits
- … attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the …
- … of Orchideæ & there is something about the visits of insects which quite puzzles me.— The Fly …
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of …
- … of various orchids, Darwin had to infer the role of insects from the floral architecture. For this …
- … examining the live plants, with reference to visits of insects, I believe their means of …
- … all parts of the flower are coadapted for fertilisation by insects, & therefore the result of n. …
Orchids
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A project to follow On the Origin of Species Darwin began to observe English orchids and collect specimens from abroad in the years immediately following the publication of On the Origin of Species. Examining…
Matches: 6 hits
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects . London: John Murray. …
- … in the co-evolution of orchids and their pollinating insects. Letter 5637 - Alfred …
- … at beauty of contrivances with respect to fertilisation by insects. After reading a …
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects , the students found it useful to …
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects . The experiment is simple – all you …
- … uses a pollen release mechanism that ejects pollinia onto insects as they enter the orchid. To …
From morphology to movement: observation and experiment
Summary
Darwin was a thoughtful observer of the natural world from an early age. Whether on a grand scale, as exemplified by his observations on geology, or a microscopic one, as shown by his early work on the eggs and larvae of tiny bryozoans, Darwin was…
Sexual selection
Summary
Although natural selection could explain the differences between species, Darwin realised that (other than in the reproductive organs themselves) it could not explain the often marked differences between the males and females of the same species. So what…
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 4 hits
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of …
- … in England, but which are not properly visited by insects & so have been rarely crossed’ ( To …
- … [1867] ). Darwin was beginning to suspect that the insects which could transfer pollen in sweet …
- … of Darwin’s views on crossing, and his paper, ‘Are insects any material aid to plants in …
Insectivorous plants
Summary
Darwin’s work on insectivorous plants began by accident. While on holiday in the summer of 1860, staying with his wife’s relatives in Hartfield, Sussex, he went for long walks on the heathland and became curious about the large number of insects caught by…
Matches: 4 hits
- … the heathland and became curious about the large number of insects caught by the common sundew ( …
- … found that over half of the leaves had the remnants of dead insects adhering to them. The project …
- … the upper surface of the Drosera leaf bend over to trap insects. He had been busy performing …
- … celebrated the publication with a poem written from the insects’ point of view : …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 7 hits
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects ( Orchids ). While Darwin …
- … ), Darwin defended his position about colour in adult insects but turned the discussion to the role …
- … his argument about the protective function of colour in both insects and birds. Darwin conceded that …
- … community in order to gather more information on insects. Moreover, he was still able to engage in …
- … charming observations on the fertilisation of Orchids by insects, as far as the Westfalian Flora …
- … my attention in general to the fertilisation of flowers by insects.’ By the summer, Hermann was …
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects ( Orchids ). In October, …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … through the animal kingdom, reaching the ‘ end of Insects ’ by the end of February. He kept …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 3 hits
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Dipsacus and Drosera: Frank’s favourite carnivores
Summary
In Autumn of 1875, Francis Darwin was busy researching aggregation in the tentacles of Drosera rotundifolia (F. Darwin 1876). This phenomenon occurs when coloured particles within either protoplasm or the fluid in the cell vacuole (the cell sap) cluster…
Matches: 5 hits
- … the nutriment of the plant in dry seasons, and to prevent insects from creeping up to devour its …
- … the precursor to slimy secretions capable of catching live insects. Still finishing his article on …
- … a plant catching & feeding on solid particles of decaying insects. ’ Francis consulted …
- … believed that the leaves were ‘adapted for the capture of insects whose decaying remains are …
- … into two lots, one half being starved and the other fed with insects or pieces of meat’, not unlike …
Was Darwin an ecologist?
Summary
One of the most fascinating aspects of Charles Darwin’s correspondence is the extent to which the experiments he performed at his home in Down, in the English county of Kent, seem to prefigure modern scientific work in ecology.
Matches: 3 hits
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 6 hits
- … work on butterflies and offers to observe birds, insects or plants on Darwin’s behalf. …
- … Darwin observations made by her and her father of plants and insects. Men: Letter …
- … Margaretta Hare Morris describes her work on fish and insects, undertaken on the shores of mountain …
- … which she found near a bog. She also sends a selection of insects, which are carefully packed in a …
- … 1855] Margaretta Hare Morris describes her work on insects, undertaken on the shores of …
- … work on butterflies and offers to observe birds, insects or plants on Darwin’s behalf. …
Darwin's works in letters
Summary
For the 163rd anniversary of the publication of Origin, we've added a new page to our Works in letters section on Cross and self fertilisation. These complement our existing pages on the 'big book' before Origin, Origin itself, the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects (1862) Climbing plants …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
Matches: 5 hits
- … bee cell was a favourite subject. The question of how little insects could solve correctly a design …
- … of bees, and that, in the case of the hive bee, a number of insects worked together, first …
- … whilst examining the nests of a vast number of Hymenopterous insects, he still believes those views …
- … which apparently embellishes the productions of these insects, is rather the necessary result than …
- … from simpler forms (the less organised, round cells of other insects), and explained their method of …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 15 hits
- … [Whitehead 1851]. Packard. A Guide to the Study of Insects 1868. U. States [Packard 1868–9] …
- … 1781]. Ekmarck on migration [Ekmarck 1781]. Linn. on insects [Linnaeus 1781b]. Forsskahl on Flora of …
- … 54 122 Sept. 25 Westwoods Modern Classification of Insects [Westwood 1839–40].— Oct …
- … Economie des Celtes [Reynier 1818] Harris Treatise of Insects [T. W. Harris 1842] …
- … Anon. 1835. Thoughts on the geographical distribution of insects. Entomological Magazine 2: 44 …
- … *128: 165 Baeckner, Michael A. 1781. On noxious insects. In Linnaeus, ed., Select …
- … 17b Forsskahl, Jonas Gustav. 1781. The flora of insects. In Linnaeus, ed., Select …
- … Thaddeus William. 1842. A treatise on some of the insects of New England, which are injurious …
- … to entomology; or, elements of the natural history of insects . 4 vols. London. [Darwin Library. …
- … sur divers sujets de l’histoire naturelle des insects, de géographie ancienne et de …
- … Academicæ . London. 119: 10a ——. 1781b. On insects, oration. In Linnaeus, ed., Select …
- … Alpheus Spring. 1868–9. Guide to the study of insects . 10 pts. Salem, Mass. [Darwin Library. …
- … An introduction to the modern classification of insects . 2 vols. London. [Darwin Library.] …
- … 1854. Insecta Maderensia; being an account of the insects of the islands of the Madeiran …
- … Atlantidum; being an enumeration of the Coleopterous insects of the Madeiras, Salvages, and …
George Robert Waterhouse
Summary
George Waterhouse was born on 6 March 1810 in Somers Town, North London. His father was a solicitor’s clerk and an amateur lepidopterist. George was educated from 1821-24 at Koekelberg near Brussels. On his return he worked for a time as an apprentice to…
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
