James Wood-Mason
James Wood-Mason (December 1846 in Gloucestershire , † May 6, 1893 at sea) was a British zoologist .
life and career
James Wood-Mason was born in Gloucestershire and his father was a doctor. After graduating from Charterhouse School , he attended Queen's College , Oxford. There it was u. a. Student of John Obadiah Westwood . In 1869 Wood-Mason went to India , where he became assistant to the curator John Anderson at the Indian Museum in Calcutta . Wood-Mason was appointed professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the Medical College. In 1887 Wood-Mason succeeded Anderson as museum director (Superintendent of the Indian Museum).
James Wood-Mason had a wide range of zoological interests. He was mainly concerned with phasmids , terrestrials and butterflies . Crustaceans were also added in later years . He described 24 species and three genera of the phasmids, u. a. Sceptrophasma hispidulum (Wood-Mason 1873) and Ramulus westwoodii (Wood-Mason 1873), which he himself caught in the Andaman Islands in 1872 . Wood-Mason is also the first person to describe Phyllium westwoodii in 1875. He described at least 74 taxa of mantis, including a. the family of Eremiaphilidae . In 1888 he was an expedition member on the steamship HMS Investigator together with Alfred William Alcock . Wood-Mason was able to catch and describe some types of cancer on this trip, including a. Metanephrops andamanicus (Wood-Mason, 1892).
James Wood-Mason was a member ( fellow ) of the Royal Entomological Society of London and the Zoological-Botanical Society Vienna . He was a member and from 1887 Vice President of The Asiatic Society of Bengal . He is also the namesake of some taxa, u. a. of the genus Woodmasonia Brunner 1907, whose type species Woodmasonia oxytenes described Wood-Mason himself in 1873.
James Wood-Mason suffered from Bright's disease , a chronic nephritis . His health was already critical when he left Calcutta for England on April 5, 1893. Wood-Mason died on May 6th at sea.
Publications (selection)
- 1889 Catalog of the Mantodea, with descriptions of new genera and species, and an enumeration of the specimens, in the collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutte. 1: 1-48.
- 1891 Catalog of the Mantodea, with descriptions of new genera and species, and an enumeration of the specimens, in the collection of the Indian Museum, Calcutte. 2: 49-66.
- 1891-1893 with A. Alcock: Natural History Notes from HM Indian Marine Survey Steamer 'Investigator', Commander RF Hoskyn, RN, commanding. Series II No. 1 On the results of deep sea dredging during the season 1890-91. In: The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 6 8-11: 8: 16-34, 119-138, 268-286, 353-362; 9: 265-275, 358-370; 11: 161-172, Plates 9: 14-15, 11: 10-11.
- 1892 Crustacea. Part I. Illustrations of the Zoology of the Royal Indian marine Surveying Steamer “Investigator”. Calcutta.
- 1895 Figures and descriptions of nine species of Squillidae: from the collection in the Indian Museum doi : 10.5962 / bhl.title.13206
literature
- AW Alcock: Obituary of James Wood-Mason. In: Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1893 pp. 110-113. Page 110 via biodiversitylibrary.org . Retrieved April 5, 2015
- PE Bragg: Biographies of Phasmatologists - 7. James Wood-Mason . 17 (1). 2008. Phasmid Study Group. Pp. 1-7. PDF, 369 kB . Retrieved April 5, 2015.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wood-Mason, James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British zoologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 1846 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gloucestershire |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 6, 1893 |
| Place of death | at sea |