448 LETTEES TO DAKWIN, 1843-1859 



[For Darwin's answer see C.D. ii. 44, which leads to the 

 following] : 



To Charks Darwin 



[March 1855.] 



[Wollaston] 1 adduced one fact as opposed to Forbes' 

 Atlantis theory, which is Ophrys, an abundant S. Europe 

 genus of many common species, but unknown in Madeira. 

 Now this has such minute seeds and such millions of them, 

 that if the Madeira plants were transported aerially, one 

 cannot conceive the absence of Ophrys. To me such cases 

 as Ophrys are extremely important, as indicating a sequence 

 in the creation of groups, for if Ophrys was as abundant and 

 wide-spread when Atlantis existed as now, it must have 

 been there too then and we take for granted would be now ; 

 on the other hand, assuming the wind as the agent, if Ophrys 

 had existed in Europe as long as the other species that are 

 common to Europe and Madeira, its seeds must have got 

 wafted across. 



The fact of apterous coleoptera strikes me too as extremely 

 curious and reminds me of an old remark I made that not 

 only the few beetles of Kerguelen Land were apterous but 

 the only lepidopterous insect in the island was so too ! 



Your final cause for so many insects being apterous is 

 very pretty and no doubt good, but how does it square with 

 the fact, that so large a proportion of Desert (Sahara, 

 Pampas, Australian) Coleoptera are apterous that in fact 

 where wings would be most wanted and where it is to be 

 assumed that great areas must be traversed for either 

 animal or vegetable food, that there the insects have 

 smallest powers of locomotion that where the deer, birds, and 

 carnivora have the longest legs the insects have the shortest. 

 Had the Madeira coleoptera unusually strong powers of 

 flight, would we not have said that this was to enable them 

 to make for shore again after being blown out to sea ? 



I have just (thanks to Bentham's kind aid) concluded a 

 good and complete catalogue of the Australian Leguminosae, 

 and shall probably work it yet. There is but one European 

 species, the common Lotus corniculatus ; it abounds in 



1 Thomas Vernon Wollaston (1822-78), entomologist and conchologist ; 

 M.A. Cambridge 1849; F.R.S. 1847; made collections and published works 

 relating chiefly to the coleoptera of Madeira, in addition to other writings. 



