The future of research into melanism

Abstract One way to begin a summary of this book is to list the ways in which study of melanism has contributed to our understanding of biological, and in particular evolutionary or genetic, phenomena. Having taught undergraduates for over 20 years, I am aware that such summaries are popular and indeed useful in two ways. First, they give those students or pupils, who are set essays on melanism, a quick resume of the more important applications of the subject to wider biological thought, without having to plough through 80000 other words. Second, and I hope more importantly, it will help to focus on the contribution that studies of melanism have made to my own field, that of evolutionary genetics, and to other spheres of biology, and may allow a sensible course of future work to be plotted. The simplest way to produce a synopsis of the major contributions of the study of melanism is perhaps a list of statements, and this is the style I will follow, describing the nature of the contribution and giving the organism(s) involved in brackets.