Date: 3/28/99

Time: 7:05

Type: Symposium

Number: 2

Corroboration, controversy, and connections: Nineteenth century entomologists and Darwinian theory.

*C.A. Sheppard, Department Of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6382
Contact e-mail: sheppc@mail.wusu.edu

In the days before air travel, telephones, faxes, and emails, communication of ideas among scientists took place via personal correspondence, publications, and the occasional scientific meeting. The appearance in1859 of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species gave naturalists a cause cèlebré to discuss and debate: evolution by means of natural selection. Darwin's theory threatened to replace natural theology, which held that the countless adaptations seen in living organisms were the result of God's special creation. This so-called "argument from design" stood in direct opposition to the mechanistic, non-teleological, non-directed force termed "natural selection." Battles over natural theology and Darwinian theory were often contentious and aggressive, and were waged both privately (personal letters) and publicly (scientific publications, popular press, meetings of scientific societies, etc.). Two topics provided ample fodder for controversy, corroboration, and connections among entomologists and other naturalists: mimicry in insects (notably butterflies); and the relationship between the yucca moth and the yucca plant. This talk will focus on these two topics, illustrating the importance of 19th century "networking" among entomologists, while emphasizing the contributions of entomologists to evolutionary theory. Excerpts of correspondence and publications will be drawn from several notable individuals, e.g., Henry Bates, Charles Darwin, George Englemann, Charles V. Riley, Samuel Scudder, and Benjamin Walsh.

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