Wilhelm Leche (1850–1927) was a Swedish zoologist who published works on mammals. Jakob Wilhelm Ebbe Gustaf Leche was born in Helsingborgs Maria parish on 4 September 1850. He lived until 29 January 1927, and was interred at the

Adolf Fredrik Church Adolf Fredrik Church ( sv, Adolf Fredriks kyrka) is a church in central Stockholm, Sweden, named after Adolf Frederick. It was built in 1768–1774, replacing a wooden chapel from 1674, which was dedicated to Saint Olof. It was opened on 27 Nove ...

in Stockholm. He was Rector of

Stockholm University College Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, soci ...

from 1887 to 1890. Leche was an early advocate of the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, writing a book on the human species that incorporated the contemporary evolutionary theory. Leche was nevertheless cautious in regard to

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

, due to its adoption by

social darwinist Social Darwinism refers to various theories and societal practices that purport to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in We ...

political thought and movements that opposed his own radical opposition to social inequality. Amongst Leche's works is a description for a small Australian bat, currently known as ''

Ozimops petersi ''Ozimops petersi'', the inland free-tailed bat is a species of bat found in Australia. It is notable for being able to tolerate the most extreme body temperature range of any known mammal. Taxonomy It was initially described in 1884 by Swedis ...

''.

References

1927 deaths 1850 births Swedish zoologists Rectors of Stockholm University Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala {{Sweden-scientist-stub