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{{Short description|English zoologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name =James Wood-Mason
| image =James_Wood-Mason.jpg
| caption=Portrait of Professor Wood-Mason by [[Bourne & Shepherd]] (1876)
| birth_date = December 1846
| birth_place = [[Gloucestershire]]
| death_date = 6 May 1893 (aged 47)
| death_place = At sea
| residence =
| citizenship =
| fields = [[Entomology]]
| workplaces =Indian Museum, [[Calcutta]]
| alma_mater =Queen's College, Oxford
| thesis_title =
| thesis_year =
| doctoral_advisor = J.O. Westwood
| known_for =[[Phasmatodea|Phasmids]] and [[Mantises]]
| author_abbrev_zoo =
}}

'''James Wood-Mason''' (December 1846 – 6 May 1893) was an English [[zoologist]]. He was the director of the [[Indian Museum]] at [[Calcutta]], after [[John Anderson (zoologist)|John Anderson]]. He collected marine animals and [[lepidoptera]], but is best known for his work on two other groups of insects, [[Phasmatodea|phasmids]] (stick insects) and [[mantises]] (praying mantises).

The genus ''[[Woodmasonia]]'' Brunner, 1907, and at least ten species of phasmids, are named after him.<ref name=Bragg>Bragg, 2008.</ref>

==Life and career==

Wood-Mason was born in Gloucestershire, England, where his father was a doctor. He was educated at [[Charterhouse School]] and [[Queen's College, Oxford]]. He went out to India in 1869 to work in the Indian Museum, [[Calcutta]], which in 2008 still housed his collection of insects.<ref name=Bragg/>

In 1872 he sailed to the [[Andaman Islands]], mostly studying marine animals, but also collecting and later describing two new [[Phasmatodea|phasmids]], ''[[Sceptrophasma hispidulum|Bacillus hispidulus]]'' and ''[[Ramulus westwoodii|Bacillus westwoodii]]''.<ref name=Bragg/><ref>Despite the generic name, these are insects, not bacteria.</ref>

[[File:The Museum, Chowringhee.jpg|thumb|left|[[Indian Museum|The Indian Museum]], Calcutta, where Wood-Mason was superintendent from 1887]]
Wood-Mason described 24 new species of phasmids, mostly from South Asia but also some from Australia, New Britain, Madagascar, the Malay peninsula and Fiji. His naming of ''[[Cotylosoma dipneusticum]]'' (Wood-Mason, 1878) is particularly curious as he never formally described the species; it was wrongly imagined to be semi-aquatic; it was "described with what is probably the least precise measurement ever used for a phasmid", namely ""between three and four inches in length"; and he gave its locality as [[Borneo]], when in fact it came from [[Fiji]].<ref name=Bragg/>

In 1887 he became Superintendent of the Indian Museum. Also in 1887, he became vice-president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.<ref name=Bragg/>

In 1888 he sailed on the Indian Marine Survey steamship {{HMS|Investigator|1881|6}}, working on and later describing new species of [[Crustacea]],<ref name=Bragg/> along with [[Alfred William Alcock]], who recorded the voyage in his classic natural history book ''[[A Naturalist in Indian Seas]]'' (1902).<ref>{{cite book | title=A Naturalist in Indian Seas, or, Four years with the Royal Indian marine survey ship 'Investigator' | publisher=John Murray | author=Alcock, Alfred William | author-link=Alfred William Alcock | title-link=A Naturalist in Indian Seas| year=1902 | location=London}}</ref><ref name=AlcockObit>{{cite journal|author=[[William Thomas Calman|W. T. C.]], [[Stanley Wells Kemp|S. W. K.]] & P. M.-B. |year=1933 |title=Alfred William Alcock. 1859–1933 |journal=[[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=119–126|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1933.0008|doi-access=free}}</ref>

For several years he suffered from [[Bright's disease]]. On 5 April 1893, unable to work, he left India for England, but died at sea on 6 May 1893.<ref name=Bragg/>

===Flower mantis drawing===
[[File:Hymenopus bicornis in active pupa stage by James Wood-Mason 1889.jpg| thumb|right|Drawing of nymph of the [[flower mantis]] ''[[Hymenopus coronatus|Hymenopus bicornis]]'' by James Wood-Mason, 1889]]
Wood-Mason gave his [[flower mantis]] drawing to [[Alfred Russel Wallace]], who wrote in his 1889 book ''Darwinism'':

{{blockquote|A beautiful drawing of this rare insect, ''[[Hymenopus bicornis]]'' (in the nymph or active pupa state), was kindly sent me by Mr. Wood-Mason, Curator of the Indian Museum at [[Calcutta]]. A species, very similar to it, inhabits [[Java]], where it is said to resemble a pink orchid. Other Mantidae, of the genus ''[[Gongylus]]'', have the anterior part of the thorax dilated and coloured either white, pink, or purple; and they so closely resemble flowers that, according to Mr. Wood-Mason, one of them, having a bright violet-blue prothoracic shield, was found in Pegu by a botanist, and was for a moment mistaken by him for a flower. See ''Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond.'', 1878, p. liii.|Alfred Russel Wallace<ref>Wallace, 1889. Note 80.</ref>}}

Wallace passed the drawing to [[Edward Bagnall Poulton]], who published it in his 1890 book ''[[The Colours of Animals]]''.<ref>Poulton, 1890. pp 74-75.</ref>

==Honours==
Wood-Mason was a Fellow of the [[Royal Entomological Society]]. In 1888 he became a Fellow of the [[University of Calcutta]].<ref name=Bragg/>

Over 10 marine animals have the specific name ''woodmasoni'' in his honour, including several described by Alcock of the ''Investigator'' : ''[[Heterocarpus woodmasoni]]'', ''[[Coryphaenoides woodmasoni]]'', ''[[Thalamita woodmasoni]]'', and ''[[Rectopalicus woodmasoni]]''.<ref name=Bragg/>

Two species of snake are named in his honour: ''[[Oligodon woodmasoni]]'' and ''[[Uropeltis woodmasoni]]''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Wood-Mason", p. 289).</ref>

==Publications==
[[File:Squillidae James Wood-Mason 1895.jpg|thumb|Illustration of Squillidae, including at left what is now ''[[Heterosquilla tricarinata]]'' by James Wood-Mason]]
* [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2311.1878.tb01946.x/abstract ''Entomological Notes''. 1. ''On the difference in the form of the Antennae between the Males of'' Idolomorpha ''and those of other genera of'' Empusidae, ''a subfamily of'' Mantidae]. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London, Volume 26, Issue 4, pages 259–270, December 1878.
* ''List of the lepidopterous insects collected in Cachar by Mr. Wood-Mason, by J. Wood-Mason and [[Lionel de Nicéville]].'' Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, 1887. (53 p., 4 leaves of plates: ill. (one col.)) Reprinted from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; 55 pt.2 no.4 (1886).
* ''A Catalogue of the Mantodea, with descriptions of new genera and species, and an enumeration of the specimens''. Printed by order of the Trustees of the Indian Museum, 1889.
* ''On the uterine villiform papillae of Pteroplataea micrura, and their relation to the embryo, being natural history notes from H.M. Indian marine survey ... R.F. Hoskyn, R.N., commanding''. Harrison and Sons, 1891.
* ''Further observations on the gestation of Indian rays: Being natural history notes from H.M. Indian marine survey steamer 'Investigator', Commander R.F. Hoskyn, R.N., commanding''. Harrison and Sons, 1892.
* ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47320#page/3/mode/1up Figures and Descriptions of Nine Species of Squillidae from the collection in the Indian Museum]''. Calcutta. Published by order of the trustees of the Indian Museum, 1895.

==References==

{{reflist}}

==Sources==

* {{cite journal|title=Obituary of James Wood-Mason. |last=Alcock |first=AW |journal=Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |year=1893 |pages=110–113|url=https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofasi1893asia#page/110/mode/2up/}}
* {{cite journal|title=[Obituary of Professor Wood-Mason] |author=Anon |journal=Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London |year=1893 |pages=lvi}}
* {{cite journal|title=Biographies of Phasmatologists – 7. James Wood-Mason. |last=Bragg |first=PE |journal=Phasmid Studies |year=2008 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=1–7}}
* {{cite book|title=The Colours of Animals: Their Meaning and Use, Especially Considered in the Case of Insects |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner |last=Poulton |first=Edward Bagnall |year=1890 |pages=74–75 |author-link=Edward Bagnall Poulton|title-link=The Colours of Animals}}
* {{cite book|last=Wallace |first=Alfred Russel |title=Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with Some of Its Applications |year=1889 |publisher=Macmillan |author-link=Alfred Russel Wallace|title-link=s:Darwinism (Wallace) |via=Wikisource}}

==External links==
* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/library/archives/catalogue/DServe.exe?dsqServer=placid&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=Code==%27PX10669%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl Natural History Museum: Mason; James Wood- (1846-1893); Curator Indian Museum]
* [http://www.southasiaarchive.com/Content/sarf.120250/221556/008 South Asia Archive: papers by Wood-Mason]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood-Mason, James}}
[[Category:British carcinologists]]
[[Category:English zoologists]]
[[Category:English lepidopterists]]
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1893 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Charterhouse School]]
[[Category:English marine biologists]]
[[Category:People from Gloucestershire]]
[[Category:Museum directors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the University of Calcutta]]

James Wood-Mason - Revision history

Orthodhaval at 05:50, 8 March 2026