To ? 20 August 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
Aug 20th 1881
Dear Sir
I am not sure whether your difficulty relates to a fly turning upside down in the air, or to its adhesion to the ceiling.1 If the former I can throw no light on the case, but do not see any special difficulty in the act.— With respect to adhesion, this is effected by viscid matter secreted by hairs on the pads or soles of the feet. You will find a short, but clear account of this structure in “The Anat. & Phys. of the Blow-Fly by B. T. Lowne.—1870”2
Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Lowne, Benjamin Thompson. 1870a. The anatomy and physiology of the blow-fly. London: John Van Voorst.
Summary
Fly adheres to ceiling by viscid matter on feet. Refers correspondent to B. T. Lowne, Anatomy and physiology of the blow-fly (1870).
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13292
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Unidentified
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Duke University, Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RL.10387)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13292,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13292.xml
