Erich Wasmann

Erich Wasmann (29 May 1859 in Merano − 27 February 1931 in Valkenburg, Netherlands) was an Austrian (born in South Tyrol) Jesuit priest and entomologist, specializing in ants and termites. He described the phenomenon known as Wasmannian mimicry and became a prominent Catholic popularizer of science, grounded in Christian beliefs, around 1900.

Wasmann was a supporter of evolution, although he did not accept the productivity of natural selection, the evolution of humans from other animals, or universal common descent of all life. Rather, he believed that common ancestry was restricted to what he called "natural species" which were generally larger groups than species (which he called "systematic species"), genera, or even families. His natural species he identified with the "paleontological species" of Melchior Neumayr.

Wasmann's reflections on evolution, while viewed with some concern by his Jesuit superiors, were popular among Catholics; he was invited to write an article on evolution for the American ''Catholic Encyclopedia''. He was involved in a long-running dispute with Ernst Haeckel over Monism, and was friends with Eberhard Dennert and Johannes Reinke, both of Protestant faith, who also opposed Haeckel and supported the Kepler Association.

His father was the painter Friedrich Wasmann. Provided by Wikipedia