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Collecting
- Butterfly specimens showing Batesian mimicry
- Butterfly specimens showing sexual dimorphism
- Specimens of birdwing butterflies (Papilionidae)
- Specimens of Asian beetles
- Specimens of bugs, crickets and other insects
- Specimens of stick and leaf insects, and a stag-horned deer-fly and other insects
- Specimen pieces of bird and marsupial skin
- Specimens of dead leaf butterflies and Trogonoptera brookiana
- Collecting and sending insects to Bates
- Collecting insects in Wales
- Designing an insect cabinet
- Exchanging insect lists with Bates and keeping a journal
- Herbert Wallace collecting in Brazil
- Fish drawing from the Rio Negro - Curimata species
- Descriptions of fishes from the Upper Rio Negro - Curimata species
- Fish drawing from the Upper Rio Negro - Ageneiosus species
- Descriptions of fishes from the Rio Negro - Ageneiosus species
- Wallace is shipwrecked and loses his collections
- The start of Wallace's Malay Archipelago expedition
- Collecting insects in Singapore
- Collecting insects in Malacca and Mount Ophir
- Qualities of a good field assistant and hand-rearing an orang-utan
- Collecting in Borneo and the departure of his assistant
- The insect life of the Malay Archipelago
- Notes on birds in Macassar
- List of expedition food supplies
- Insects and their colouring
- Wallace on biogeography
- Payment to Wallace by the British Museum
- Problems with the British Museum paying Wallace
- Insect list from the Malay Archipelago
- The Malay Archipelago book - map and dedication
- Photograph of Fred Birch
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Exchanging insect lists with Bates and keeping a journal
Catalogue number: WP1/3/11
Letter from Wallace to fellow entomologist Henry Walter Bates about exchanging insect lists, plans for keeping a journal, and natural history books, dated April 1846.
Wallace and Bates first met in 1844, at a Leicester library, while Wallace was a teacher at the Collegiate School. Bates introduced Wallace to the world of entomology (studying insects). Here Wallace confirms that he 'would be most happy to exchange lists' with Bates, who lived in Leicester, each month. He describes his own collection of insects in Neath, Wales. Wallace noticed that the common species in Neath are 'different in many respects from those in Leicester'.
Wallace also tells Bates of his plan to start a journal of insects collected, '...a Natural History Journal. A sort of day book in which I insert all my captures...with the day of the month, locality etc and any remarks on specific characteristics, habits etc.' This is a wonderful insight into the beginning of Wallace's career as a naturalist. Many of the scientists at the Natural History Museum today keep journals to help them remember all the details about their collections.
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Wallace Letters Online
View high resolution scans and transcripts of Alfred Russel Wallace's correspondence, including all surviving letters between him and Charles Darwin.