From Charles Cardale Babington 1 July 1837
St John’s Coll: Cambridge
July 1. 1837.
Dear Darwin
I returned here yesterday evening & found your letter lying upon my table. Will you tell Hope that I have only one insect from Australia, that is K. Georges Sound. It is an Hydroporus allied to 12–punctatus but smaller & less marked with yellow. I will endeavour to complete a description of it during the following week & send it to you for Hope.1 I have only one species from New Zealand, it appears to be an Hydrobius. From Terre del Fuego the species are more numerous, namely, a small & imperfect specimen of Hydrobius, (a single specimen of Corixa,) 4 specimens of a very pretty species of Hydroporus allied to lineatus, 5 species of Colymbetes, allied respectively to our pulverosus, femoralis?, & oblongus.
I am sorry to say that I have been prevented from examining the insects with care, but propose doing so & drawing up the descriptions after the long vacation. I have been very fully employed since you left Cambridge & am now on the point of starting for Jersey where I intend to pass the greater part of this month, & next in botanicaal research. I will however endeavour to comple[te] the K.G.S. species for Hope & leave it with you or Waterhouse as I pass through town. I propose sending my complete account of your Insects to the Entoml. Society when finished,2 but will not do so if you wish any other plan to be adopted. Still I think that that is the best place for them.
Believe me yours truly | Charles C. Babington
Footnotes
Summary
Reports on the insect specimens [collected by CD] from Australia, New Zealand, and Tierra del Fuego. Has not completed descriptions.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-363
- From
- Charles Cardale Babington
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- St John’s College, Cambridge
- Source of text
- DAR 29.1: C3
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 363,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-363.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2