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Catalogue number: WP1/3/14
Letter from Wallace to Henry Walter Bates about the lack of good insect collecting and sending a list of duplicate specimens, dated October 1845.
Wallace writes from Neath in Wales. He says he has collected few insects in the past three months due to a lack of time, luck and money. Wallace tells Bates that he has been busy 'surveying and levelling among the most romantic parts of this beautiful and highly interesting district'.
Wallace's brother William, a surveyor, died suddenly in 1845. Wallace returned to Wales to run William's surveying business for a while. However, despite working outside, the only thing Wallace felt 'worth mentioning' was 'a fine Elephant Hawk moth (Deliephila elpenor)...just about to change into a pupa...' Bates introduced Wallace to the world of entomology (studying insects). They corresponded regularly, exchanging lists and specimens.
For enquiries about the Wallace Collection please email the library
View high resolution scans and transcripts of Alfred Russel Wallace's correspondence, including all surviving letters between him and Charles Darwin.
