Important letter to Sir John Harmer on Carnivorous Beetles

Autograph letter signed, concerning carnivorous beetles. Down, Beckenham, Kent, 13th September, 1881, 8vo (205 x 131mm), horizontal mailing folds, 1pp., in fine condition, signed “Charles Darwin”; with retained copy of Harmer’s letter to Darwin, Wick, near Arundel, 1881, 8vo (205 x 130mm), horizontal mailing folds, weak at folds.

A fine unpublished letter to John Harmer, thanking him for his account of a beetle attacking a six-inch worm, and for the beetle itself, which Harmer had enclosed.

Harmer had captured the beetle in Arundel Park in Sussex, after witnessing the beetle attack the worm he writes “not having noticed any thing of the kind before I carried him home to satisfy myself whether such was his food or whether his appetite would be affected by captivity. He has since disposed of the fluids of two more which he cuts up in a very business like manner.” Harmer fed it more worms, then sent it to Darwin in case there was “an element of interest in the circumstance”.

Darwin’s response reads “I am much obliged for your kindness. I had read that beetles attacked worms, but did not know how far this was authentic. The beetle sent is Carabus Violaceus; & the genus may be considered as the tiger of the insect world.”

The posthumous revised edition of “The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms” (1882) notes that “the larger species of Carabus and Staphylinus… attack… [worms] ferociously”. This observation is absent from the first edition of 1881, so it seems Harmer’s efforts were put to good use.

Not in the Darwin Correspondence Project, but Harmer’s letter to Darwin is (DCP-LETT-13332).