I am fearfully puzzled
how far to extend your protective views with respect to the females in
various classes. The more I work, the more important sexual selection
apparently comes out.
Can butterflies be polygamous?--i.e. will one male impregnate more than
one female?
Forgive me troubling you, and I daresay I shall have to ask your
forgiveness again, and believe me, my dear Wallace, yours most
sincerely,
CH. DARWIN.
P.S.--Baker has had the kindness to set the Entomological Society
discussing the relative numbers of the sexes in insects, and has brought
out some very curious results.
Is the orang polygamous? But I daresay I shall find that in your papers
in (I think) the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_.
* * * * *
The following group of letters deals with the causes of the sterility of
hybrids (_see_ note in "More Letters," p. 287). Darwin's final view is
given in the "Origin," 6th edit., 1900, p. 384. He acknowledges that it
would be advantageous to two incipient species if, by physiological
isolation due to mutual sterility, they could be kept from blending; but
he continues: "After mature reflection, it seems to me that this could
not have been effected through Natural Selection.
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