Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

Campfire conversations with Alfred Russel Wallace on people and nature based on his travel in the Malay archipelago: the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise. Part travelogue, part biography, this book charts the discoveries of the famous naturalist/explorer Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). Born in 1823, Wallace devoted much of his time to fieldwork, first in the Amazon and then in Asia. During his travels he identified what is now known as the Wallace Line, which divides the flora and fauna of Asia from that which was hitherto a combination of both Australian and Asian origin. He is, of course, notable for independently developing the theory of evolution due to natural selection (but was perhaps deliberately sidelined by Darwin). He was a voracious collector - he trapped, skinned, and pickled 125,660 specimens, including 212 new species of birds and 900 new species of beetles during his long and productive life.