<span>Darwin has questions for Bates related to colour differences in the sexes of butterflies, particularly in relation to HWB's paper, "On variation in sexes of Argynnis diana". Also mentions that his manuscript on Lepidoptera is longer than he intended and the information is four-fifths owed to H.W. Bates. Transcription: "April 15 c1862 1868 Down. Bromley. Kent.S.C. My dear Bates Will you looks at p.2 of enclosed note (which please return for it has been + is precious to me), at [] with two blue lines, + [] me in the name of the one Papilio, in which there is no difference in colour in the two sexes. Also should you call this one species a beautiful or [] one, either relating to [] other Butterflies as to the genus Papilio?- As I am writing I will ask another question: in your communication to W.H. Edwards in [] of Philadelphia, you speak of the females of [] Diana, Sagona, Paphia, Papilio [], as departing from the type of their family.- Now are there more [] than their males? The [] female of P. [] cannot be considered 10. Will [] as the above </span><span>females []? I suppose you do not know whether in the case of their species the males or females appear most numerous. I hear from Walsh + Edwards that with P. [] the males are as 4 to 1 to the females. H. Doubleday has [] me up to good way of estimating number of sexes, [] by priced German [] + the results are striking: there with Butterflies out of 114 sp. + [], in which the sexes differ in [] (of causes there is no difference in very common species) the males in every case but one are cheapest; that according to the standard on an average, there ought to be for every 100 females 143 males.- So return to the female Butterflies, Wallace things in the [] that in all cases when the female is most beautiful she is mimetic. My [] has [] to greater length than I like, but has interested me much; + I owe 4/5 of my information to your great + [] kindness. yours very sincerely Ch. Darwin" Letter, signed by sender to [Henry Walter Bates]. Sent from Down House, near Beckenham, Kent, England.The Robert M. Stecher Collection of Charles Darwin Books and Manuscripts</span>
