indebted to Mr. Bateson for the following note: "This belief does not seem
to be well founded, for since Darwin's time several species of Rhopalocera
(e.g. Pieris, Pararge, Caenonympha) have been successfully bred in
confinement without any special difficulty; and by the use of large cages
members even of strong-flying genera, such as Vanessa, have been induced to
breed.") I was extremely pleased at hearing from Fritz Muller that he
liked my chapter on lepidoptera in the "Descent of Man" more than any other
part, excepting the chapter on morals.


LETTER 462. TO H. MULLER.
Down [May, 1872].

I have now read with the greatest interest your essay, which contains a
vast amount of matter quite new to me. (462/1. "Anwendung der
Darwin'schen Lehre auf Bienen," "Verhandl. d. naturhist. Vereins fur
preuss. Rheinld. u. Westf." 1872. References to Muller's paper occur in
the second edition of the "Descent of Man.") I really have no criticisms
or suggestions to offer. The perfection of the gradation in the character
of bees, especially in such important parts as the mouth-organs, was
altogether unknown to me. You bring out all such facts very clearly by
your comparison with the corresponding organs in the allied hymenoptera.
How very curious is the case of bees and wasps having acquired,
independently of inheritance from a common source, the habit of building
hexagonal cells and of producing sterile workers! But I have been most
interested by your discussion on secondary sexual differences; I do not
suppose so full an account of such differences in any other group of
animals has ever been published. It delights me to find that we have
independently arrived at almost exactly the same conclusion with respect to
the more important points deserving investigation in relation to sexual