Fritz Müller | |
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| Born | 31 March 1822 |
| Died | 21 May 1897 (aged 75) |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Known for | Müllerian mimicry |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology |
Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (German pronunciation:[ˈjoːhanˈfʁiːdʁɪçˈteːodoːɐ̯ˈmʏlɐ]; 31 March 1822 – 21 May 1897), better known asFritz Müller (Brazilian Portuguese:[ˈfɾitsˈmileʁ]), and also asMüller-Desterro,[1][2] was aGerman biologist who emigrated to southernBrazil, where he lived in and near the city ofBlumenau,Santa Catarina. There he studied thenatural history of theAtlantic forest and was an early advocate ofDarwinism.Müllerian mimicry is named after him.[3]
Müller was born in the village of Windischholzhausen, nearErfurt inThuringia, Germany, the son of a minister. Müller had what would be seen today as a normal scientific education at the universities ofBerlin (earning a BSc in Botany) andGreifswald, culminating in aPhD in Biology. He subsequently decided to study medicine. As a medical student, he began to question religion and in 1846 became anatheist, joining theFree Congregations and supportingfree love. Despite completing the course, he did not graduate because he refused to swear the graduation oath, which contained the phrase "so help me God and his sacred Gospel".
Müller was disappointed by the failure of thePrussian Revolution in 1848, fearing implications for his life and career. As a result, he emigrated to Brazil in 1852, with his brother August and their wives, to joinHermann Blumenau'snew colony in the State of Santa Catarina. In Brazil, Müller became a farmer, doctor, teacher and biologist. During this time, he studied the natural history of thesub-tropicalAtlantic forest, around theItajaí River valley.
Müller gained an official teaching post, and spent a decade teaching mathematics at a college inDesterro.[4][5] The college was taken over by theJesuits, and Müller (though retaining his salary) returned to the Itajaí River valley. He negotiated a number of botanical activities with the provincial government and spent the next nine years doing botanical research and advising farmers. In 1876 he was appointed as a Travelling Naturalist to theNational Museum in Rio de Janeiro.
In his retirement years, Müller received many offers of support and offers of financial help. He was one of many naturalists to visit and work in South America during the nineteenth century, but was the only one to settle in Brazil for the rest of his life. A statue of Müller was erected in Blumenau in 1929.[6]
During his life Müller published over 70 papers in English and Portuguese, and also in German-language periodicals. The topics covered a range of natural topics fromentomology,marine biology andbotany.
Müllerian mimicry is named after and discovered by him. This phenomenon concerns the resemblance between two or more unpalatable species which are protected frompredators capable oflearning. The protection is often a noxious chemical, perhaps gained from thelarva eating a particular plant; or it may be a sting or other defence. It is an advantage for such potentialprey to advertise their status in a way clearly perceptible to their predators; this is calledaposematic orwarning coloration. The principle is of wide application, but in Müller's case the prey werebutterflies, and the predators usuallybirds orreptiles.[7]
In Müllerian mimicry, an advantage is gained when unpalatable species resemble each other, especially when the predator has a good memory for colour (as birds, for instance, do have). Thus one trial may work to dissuade a bird from several species of butterfly which all have the same warning coloration. Müller and other naturalists believed that such systems of mimicry could only come about by means ofnatural selection, and all of them wrote about it.
Another of Müller's discoveries were theMüllerian bodies in the flowering plant genusCecropia. Müller was able to show that the small bodies at the petiole-bases of Cecropia are food bodies and are used by protecting ants of the genusAzteca which inhabit the hollow stems of these fast growing trees.
Much of Müller's botany was stimulated by the series of botanical works published by Darwin. After Darwin'sFertilisation of Orchids (1862) he spent years of work on orchids, sending observations to his brother Hermann and to Darwin. Darwin used some of this work in his second edition of 1877, and Hermann later became famous for his work on pollination. OnClimbing plants (1867) Müller lent a letter to Darwin listing 40 genera of climbing plants classified by their method of climbing. The next few months saw more observations, which Darwin had translated and published as Müller's first paper in English.[8] As a botanist, Fritz Müller is denoted by theauthor abbreviationF.J.Müll. whenciting abotanical name.[9]
Müller became a strong supporter ofCharles Darwin. He wroteFür Darwin in 1864, arguing that Darwin'stheory of evolution bynatural selection was correct, and that Braziliancrustaceans and their larvae could be affected by adaptations at any growth stage. Müller sent a copy to Darwin, who had the book privately translated for his own use.[10] A later translation into English, with some additional material by Müller, was made byW.S. Dallas, and was published asFacts and Arguments for Darwin in 1869.
Extensive correspondence exists between Müller and Darwin, and Müller also corresponded with his brotherHermann Müller,Alexander Agassiz,Ernst Krause andErnst Haeckel.
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