Lincoln Pierson Brower (September 10, 1931 – July 17, 2018) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

, known for his work on

monarch butterflies The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It ...

through six decades, including on their

automimicry In zoology, automimicry, Browerian mimicry, or intraspecific mimicry, is a form of mimicry in which the same species of animal is imitated. There are two different forms. In one form, first described by Lincoln Brower in 1967, weakly-defended m ...

chemical ecology A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

and

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

. G. Pasteur called this Browerian mimicry, after Lincoln and his first wife Jane Van Zandt Brower.

Life

Brower was born to Bailey and Helen Pierson Brower in

Madison, New Jersey Madison is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 16,937. Located along the Morris & Essex Lines, it is noted for Madison's historic railroad station becoming one ...

in 1931. He was raised in

Chatham Township, New Jersey Chatham Township is a suburban Township (New Jersey), township located in Morris County, New Jersey, Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's population was 10,452, reflecting an increase of ...

, where he showed interest in butterflies.Mytelka, Roz
"Butterflies, Moths and Chatham Township; Lincoln Brower 1931-2018"
''Chatham Living'', August 2019. Accessed February 1, 2022. "Lincoln Brower, foremost expert on Monarch butterflies, grew up in Chatham Township.... A graduate of Chatham High School, he received a BA from Princeton University and a PhD from Yale." In an oral history, he recalled being punished at school, being made to sit all day for skipping a class to go out and collect a species of moth; asked whether it was worth it, he stated "Absolutely". He met Jane Van Zandt while a student at Chatham High School. He was educated at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

where he gained a BA in biology in 1953. He and Jane married and took their PhDs in zoology together at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1957, his on speciation in the ''

Papilio glaucus ''Papilio glaucus'', the eastern tiger swallowtail, is a species of butterfly native to eastern North America. It is one of the most familiar butterflies in the eastern United States, ranging north to southern Ontario, Canada, and is common in m ...

'' group of butterflies, hers doing the first ever

controlled experiments A scientific control is an experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the independent variable (i.e. confounding variables). This increases the reliability of the results, often through a comparison betwe ...

Batesian mimicry Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on bu ...

in butterflies. They spent two years at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, the first as

Fulbright scholars The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

, in

E. B. Ford Edmund Brisco "Henry" Ford (23 April 1901 – 2 January 1988) was a British ecological genetics, ecological geneticist. He was a leader among those British biologists who investigated the role of natural selection in nature. As a schoolboy Ford ...

's ecological genetics laboratory. He then lectured at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

from 1958, rising to the endowed Stone Professorship in 1976. In 1980 he moved to the Zoology Department at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. On retiring in 1997, he moved to

Sweet Briar College Sweet Briar College is a private women's college in Sweet Briar, Virginia. It was established in 1901 by Indiana Fletcher Williams in memory of her deceased daughter, Daisy. The college formally opened its doors in 1906 and granted the B.A. deg ...

as a research professor. A butterfly and moth collector from an early age, he began studying the biology of the

monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It ...

while a postgraduate at Yale in 1954, and became a world expert on the species over six decades. He contributed to over 200 papers and 8 films, combining research, public education about the monarch butterfly, and conservation work. Unlike some popular sources, Brower did not suppose the monarch to be in danger of extinction, though he agreed that its migration across America was threatened. He led a team of researchers studying the ecology of the overwintering grounds of the monarch in the mountains of Michoacan, Mexico, starting in the winter of 1977, incorporating aspects of thermal biology, predator-prey interactions, and

. In the 1980s, he assisted conservation groups in Mexico and the Mexican government to protect fir forests used by the species from logging. In the last decades of his life, he recorded the sharp decline in the monarch population of North America, down by some 80% in the 20 years to 2018, attributed to herbicides, logging, and weather events. He was the only scientist to sign a 2014 petition to the US government to give the monarch legal protection. He advised the novelist

Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the Univers ...

on butterfly migration for her 2012 book ''

Flight Behavior ''Flight Behavior'' is a 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is her seventh novel, a New York Times Bestseller,Charis Perkins"Barbara Kingsolver talks Trump, #MeToo and the magic of Australia" ''The Australian Financial Review'', 28 March 2018 ( ...

''.

Family

He divorced Jane Van Zandt in 1974. He then married Christine Marie Moffitt; they divorced in 1980. He married his third wife, Linda S. Fink, in 1990. He had a son, Andrew Van Zandt Brower, who is also a biologist, and a daughter, Tamsin Brower Barrett. He died on July 17, 2018 in

Nelson County, Virginia Nelson County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,775. Its county seat is Lovingston. Nelson County is part of the Charlottesville, VA Metropolitan Statistic ...

Honors and awards

* Honorary Life Member of the Lepidopterists' Society, 1990 * The

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

for zoology, the Linnean Society of London, 1993 * Distinguished Animal Behaviorist award, the Animal Behavior Society, 1995 * Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, Yale University, 2005 * Marsh Award for Insect Conservation, the Royal Entomological Society, 2007 * Conservation Action Prize, Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center, 2014 * The E. O. Wilson Award of the

Center for Biological Diversity The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit membership organization known for its work protecting endangered species through legal action, scientific petitions, creative media and grassroots activism. It was founded in 1989 by Kieran Suckl ...

, 2016 * Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, 2017 * Research associate of the Smithsonian Institution * Research associate of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera at the University of Florida * Henry Bates Award of the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera * Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society * Fellow of the Explorers Club * Reconocimiento a la Conservacion de la Naturaleza from the Mexican federal government

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brower, Lincoln 1931 births 2018 deaths American entomologists American ecologists Chatham High School (New Jersey) alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Princeton University alumni Chemical ecologists People from Chatham Township, New Jersey People from Madison, New Jersey