[js1138]

I'm forced to wonder if this would have been considered a puzzle worth examining if it hadn't been for the likes of Behe and Dembski pointing out the (then-existing) gap in the theory and making an issue out of it.

No, Darwin was aware of irreducible complexity and acknowledged the need to address it continually. The full case for irreducible complexity was made in 1802 by Paley in "Natural Theology". Origin of Species was a response to Paley.

[inquest]

No, Darwin was aware of irreducible complexity and acknowledged the need to address it continually.

That was well before his theory became accepted by the scientific community as a bedrock tenet of biology. I'm talking about since then.