Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Known for developing the concept of M llerian mimicry, whereby poisonous species with a common predator display similar warning signals, the naturalist Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) M ller (1821-97) spent most of his working life in Brazil. Having emigrated from Germany, owing partly to his radical atheism, he became a strong early supporter of Darwinism. Drawing on his studies of crustaceans, he originally published this work in German as F r Darwin (1864), and sent the great naturalist a copy. M ller became a regular correspondent, and Darwin supported the translation of M ller's work, firstly for his personal use and also in the published 1869 version that is reissued here, rendered into English by the naturalist William Sweetland Dallas (1824-90), with several updates by M ller. Using case studies of crustaceans to provide evidence for certain aspects of Darwinian theory, M ller draws up evolutionary classifications of the various species examined.