Franz Theodor Doflein (5 April 1873, in Paris – 24 August 1924, in Obernigk, near today's Wrocław) was a German zoologist known for his studies of animal ecology. He worked on a range of organisms including crabs, ants and wrote a textbook on protozoa that went into several editions.
Doflein was born in Paris to a German merchant married to an Englishwoman. After the death of his father in 1900, he moved to Germany and studied medicine and zoology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he was influenced by Richard Hertwig. From 1895 to 1896, he worked as an auxiliary assistant to Alexander Götte at the University of Strasbourg, followed by research of fish diseases at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as an assistant under Bruno Hofer. In 1898, on behalf of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, he took part in a study trip to the West Indies, Mexico and California. After his return to Germany, he served as an assistant at the Zoologischen Staatssammlung (Zoological State Collections) in Munich.
From 1904 to 1905, he conducted zoological research in Japan and Ceylon. In 1907, he became an associate professor of zoological systematics and biology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and three years later, was named second director of the Zoologischen Staatssammlung. In 1912, he succeeded August Weismann as chair of zoology at the University of Freiburg, and following a research trip to Macedonia, he obtained a professorship at the University of Breslau in 1918.
His name is associated with Doflein's salamander, Bolitoglossa dofleini, circumscribed by Franz Werner in 1903. The sea anemone genus Dofleinia also bears his name, as do taxa with the specific epithet of dofleini, an example being Enteroctopus dofleini (Giant Pacific octopus).
Besides his scientific work, Doflein practiced painting and wrote novellas and a travelogue.
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He was the author of a well-received textbook on protozoans, titled Lehrbuch der Protozoenkunde. It was published over several editions; its fifth edition (1927–29) being issued by Eduard Reichenow. He was also the author of significant works associated with termites, crustaceans, ants and ant lions.
