The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [c. 1858]. Abstract of Pierre Huber's Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis Indigènes [Researches on the Habits of Indigenous Ants] (1810). PC-USA-OriginAnts. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with the kind permission of a private collection, USA, and William Huxley Darwin. From the dealer's sale description: "Autograph manuscript notes on ants made in the writing of On the Origin of Species [c. 1858-59.] 4to. 8 ¼ x 6 ½ in. 16 lines in ink, one in pencil. Light blue-gray paper. Old pinholes. ... Darwin manuscripts directly connected with the writing of the first edition of On the Origin of Species are extremely rare in the market. Single leaves from the Origin of Species manuscript would now approach $500,000. We have never seen another manuscript of notes for On the Origin of Species in the market."

These notes taken during research for the Origin of species, informed the famous section on pp. 219-224 on slave-making ants. This extraordinary behaviour led Darwin to conclude: "To my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as...ants making slaves...not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die." (p. 243) This was his usual reaction to examples of cruelty in nature, such as the parasitoid ichneumon wasps. Darwin's discussion of slave-making ants in Origin was very widely discussed. In an 1861 letter to H. W. Bates, Darwin wrote, "everyone cares about Ants— more notice has been taken of Slave Ants in the Origin than of any other passage." See the largest collection of reviews of Origin in the world in: Reviews. The same private collection holds:
[c. 1858]. Notes on Huber, Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis Indigènes (1810). Text & image PC-USA-OriginAnts
1858. Draft leaf of Origin. Text & image PC-USA-OriginMS270
1858-59. Draft leaf of Origin. Text & image PC-USA-OriginMS324
1859.11.11. Letter to Adam Sedgwick on sending Origin. Text & image PC-USA-SedgwickOrigin
[1859].12.24. Letter to T. H. Huxley on a manuscript on the evolution of pigeons. Text & image PC-USA-HuxleyPigeons
[1861-62]. Draft of Orchids, folio 192. Text & image Sanders-3.2017Lot96.
1870. Draft leaf of Descent. Text & image PC-USA-DescentMS10
1871. Receipt for Murray's payment for Descent. Text & image PC-USA-DescentReceipt
1871. Draft leaf of Expression. Text & image CUL-DAR185.143
1871. Draft leaf of Expression. Text & image CUL-DAR185.144
1868.02.09. Letter to Asa Gray on Variation. Text & image PC-USA-GrayVariation

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[traces of paperclip are visible here]

p. 20. 2 vars in colour & habit of F. fauve (perhaps 2 species)

. 60 difference in habit of F. rouges

77 on food affecting sexes

79 differences of larva at two seasons (Transition)

[there are pin holes here where a slip was attached]

85 on difference of larvae in cocoon & out – variable in individuals & in species.-

88 females fertilised & males die.

p. 110. females remarry then other things p. 114

144. Migration of ants – make roads

150 on ants knowing each other after 4 months. (intellect of animals)

165 do

180 ant & aphids 192 do, 194./ 201. occasional interest.-

210 – 286 Slave-making ants

297. variable instincts I think (leads to intelligence?)

300 instinct of keeping larvae in the right temperature

310 language

[in pencil:] 193 Play of ants.

[pin holes here at the same angle and on other side of where the manuscript was folded indicated that the manuscript was pinned together, possibly to another manuscript]

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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)