John Jenner Weir

John Jenner Weir, FLS, FZS (9 August 1822 – 23 March 1894) was an English amateur entomologist, ornithologist and British civil servant. He is best known today for being one of the naturalists who corresponded with and provided important data to both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.

He played an important role in the formulation of Wallace's theory of aposematism, providing the first experimental evidence for the effectiveness, and hence the existence, of warning coloration in caterpillars.

Life and civil service career

Weir was born on 9 August 1822. at Lewes in East Sussex. He joined the customs service in 1839, rising to the high position of Accountant and Controller-General of Customs in London in 1874. He would hold that post until his retirement in 1885. Darwin cited a number of his observations in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, as well as in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

Death

He died from heart failure on 23 March 1894, just a couple of weeks after participating in his last meeting of the South London Entomological and Natural History Society where he submitted his final paper for publication. He had been suffering from angina pectoris for a few years.