RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. Abstract of Cambridge, Notes on some Arachnida collected by Cuthbert Collingwood, Esq., M.D., during rambles in the China Sea, &c. CUL-DAR89.53. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 11.2021. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volumes CUL-DAR 87-90 contain material for Darwin's book Descent of man 2d ed. (1874-1877).
Darwin cited this in Descent 2d ed., p. 273: "The Rev. O. P. Cambridge 22 accounts in the following manner for the extreme smallness of the male in the genus Nephila. "M. Vinson gives a graphic account of the agile way in which the diminutive male escapes from the ferocity of the female, by gliding about and playing hide and seek over her body and along her gigantic limbs: in such a pursuit it is evident that the chances of escape would be in favour of the smallest males, while the larger ones would fall early victims; thus gradually a diminutive race of males would be selected, until at last they would dwindle to the smallest possible size compatible with the exercise of their generative functions,—in fact probably to the size we now see them, i.e., so small as to be a sort of parasite upon the female, and either beneath her notice, or too agile and too small for her to catch without great difficulty." n22: "'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' 1871, p. 621."
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Proc. Zoolog Soc. 1871 p 621 curious supposed explanation of small size of ♂ Spiders, P. Cambridge
[O. P. Cambridge. 1871. Notes on some Arachnida collected by Cuthbert Collingwood, Esq., M.D., during rambles in the China Sea, &c. Received 24 May 1871.]
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 25 September, 2022