From John D. Glennie Jr 6 April 1861
Summary
The stinging of bees and wasps contrasted.
| Author: | John David Glennie, Jr |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Apr 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 48: 70–3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3113 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … The stinging of bees and wasps contrasted. …
- … use you please of what I state. Bees & wasps are not, on this point to be placed exactly …
- … escape the vengeance of her late enemy. The wasp, on the contrary, goes to work with far …
- … other of the (Amazon warrior) type. If the wasp stings & has the opportunity of escape she …
From Henry Wenman Newman [before 22 October 1861]
Summary
Replies to CD’s query (see 3778): the queens or females of the humble bees are not fertilised in the air. Offers a number of observations relating to the fertilisation of bees and wasps, which he has made in the course of sixty years.
| Author: | Henry Wenman Newman |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [before 22 Oct 1861] |
| Classmark: | Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman n.s. 2 (1861–2): 76–7. |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3292A |
Matches: 6 hits
- … relating to the fertilisation of bees and wasps, which he has made in the course of sixty …
- … never reached its destination. The queen wasp was more than double the size of the male. — …
- … drones; and the latter almost always hatched before the young queens. Wasps. — I have …
- … once observed the fertilisation of the wasp near Thornbury. On the 7th of September, 1847, …
- … very near (it was gradually descending) it proved to be a male and female wasp united. …
- … Each of the wasps was trying to fly in a different direction. They fell to the ground, and …
From H. W. Bates 30 September 1861
Summary
Discusses the mimicry of the Volucella flies, and the bees and wasps they mimic. Compares it with the different object of mimicry in butterflies.
Refers to incompleteness of Cuthbert Collingwood’s paper [? "On homophormism, or organic representative forms", Proc. Liverpool Lit. & Philos. Soc. 14 (1860): 181–216].
Thanks CD for help in selecting a publisher for his book [The naturalist on the river Amazons (1863)].
| Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 30 Sept 1861 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.10: 92 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3271 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … of the Volucella flies, and the bees and wasps they mimic. Compares it with the different …
- … observed them. Another species of Volucella, V. inanis resembles a wasp; its ova & larvæ …
- … are found in wasps’ nests. — A third common species is V. pellucens this in its dress …
- … of depositing their ova in the nests of wasps and Bombi. It is not necessary to explain to …
To Frederick Smith 19 June [1861]
Summary
Discusses pollen-masses found on various insects.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Frederick Smith |
| Date: | 19 June [1861] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.255) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3189 |
To J. O. Westwood 4 September [1861]
Summary
Is certain he never had Morren’s paper from JOW or heard of it before JOW’s note; will write to Gardeners’ Chronicle about it [see 3252].
Thanks for the two Sphinx moths; unfortunately the pollen-masses do not belong to orchids but to Asclepias.
Asks whether R. B. Todd’s Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology [1835–59] has an article on fertilisation of orchids.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Obadiah Westwood |
| Date: | 4 Sept [1861] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3243 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1861] ). Sphex is a genus of solitary wasp. John Edward Gray was keeper of the zoological …
To John Obadiah Westwood 15 August [1861]
Summary
As a general rule CD thinks it best to deposit specimens in the British Museum, and "bitterly regrets" he did not send all his specimens there. Nevertheless he agrees to sending his crustaceans to the Oxford Museum.
CD is at work on Orchids. He would be greatly obliged if JOW could send him specimens of pollen-masses attached to head or base of proboscis of moths.
Asks for reference to Morren’s paper that JOW mentioned before [see 2862].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Obadiah Westwood |
| Date: | 15 Aug [1861] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological collections) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3234 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 9 July [1860] . Westwood sent CD some wasps with pollen-masses attached, but the pollen- …
To Jeffries Wyman 3 February [1861]
Summary
Can there be any truth in account of rattlesnakes fascinating their prey? Structure of rattle complex.
Fears it will be impossible to show gradation among other snakes.
Has JW seen Robert McDonnell’s article on electrical organ in skate ["On an organ in the skate", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1861): 57–60]?
Thanks for observations on Vespidae. Particularly values such cases of variation.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jeffries Wyman |
| Date: | 3 Feb [1861] |
| Classmark: | Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine (Jeffries Wyman papers H MS c12) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3056 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … know whether anything analogous occurs with our wasps. I particularly value such cases of …
| letter | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Bates, H. W. | (1) |
| Glennie, J. D., Jr | (1) |
| Newman, H. W. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Westwood, J. O. | (2) |
| Smith, Frederick (a) | (1) |
| Wyman, Jeffries | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Westwood, J. O. | (2) |
| Bates, H. W. | (1) |
| Glennie, J. D., Jr | (1) |
| Newman, H. W. | (1) |
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…
A tale of two bees
Summary
Darwinian evolution theory fundamentally changed the way we understand the environment and even led to the coining of the word 'ecology'. Darwin was fascinated by bees: he devised experiments to study the comb-building technique of honey bees and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … north as the Kola peninsula in Russia. According to the Bees Wasps & Ants Recording Society ( …
The writing of "Origin"
Summary
From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … him up to date on the natural history of various bees and wasps. For assistance with mathematical …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … him up to date on the natural history of various bees and wasps. For assistance with mathematical …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … sweet-pea plants, of variation in the nests of bees and wasps, and of a myriad of other phenomena …
