From Frederick Smith 14 September 1869
Brit. Museum.
14 Septr. 1869.
My dear Sir
I regret that I am not prepared to decide as to whether the sexes stridulate in Mutilla I can only affirm that the female does so—and that so sharply as to attract your notice immediately—1 I have taken more specimens of the Male than the female but have not certainly noticed in the former sex.— One of the musicians that I have heard is Trox sabulosus— this insect I once observed on the wing— it settled in the grass within a yard of me—and on doing so I was attracted by the shrill tone it produced— I caught it in my hand and so loud was the squeak-like noise that a gamekeeper who was standing by asked if I had caught a mouse—2 All the species of Necrophorus stridulate loudly3—but the most amusing performance is that the little weevil Acalles roboris—4 it is about this size. You will recollect Mr Wollastons paper in the Zoologist on the Musical Curculio—that he found I think in Madeira— this was a Sp. of Acalles5 Wollaston wrote to me when I was at Deal where the Acalles roboris is plentiful asking me to observe whether this little sp.c was musical— I obtained about 20— I had to place them in a small pill box—then shake them up—and on applying the box to my ear—their music was distinctly audible— I tried—various experiments placing 6. 4. 3. 2. 1 in the box— the single beetle was very difficult to hear— the tone was shrill but very low but I did hear it— the tone was produced by rubbing the abdomen against the elytra—there being a very smooth space on which -it operated— Wollaston has described it in his paper
I shall probably see you soon when I might be able to say more— next week I shall I expect be in the Isle of Wight
Yours very truly | Fredk. Smith
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Wollaston, Thomas Vernon. 1860b. On certain musical Curculionidæ; with descriptions of two new Plinthi. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 3d ser. 6: 14–19.
Summary
On stridulation of Coleoptera, Trox sabulosus, Mutilla. [See Descent 1: 380.]
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6892
- From
- Frederick Smith
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- British Museum
- Source of text
- DAR 82: A5–6
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6892,” accessed on 19 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6892.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17