John Obadiah Westwood
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John Obadiah Westwood (22 December 1805 – 2 January 1893) was an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
and
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
also noted for his artistic talents. He published several illustrated works on insects and antiquities. He was among the first entomologists with an academic position at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. He was a natural theologian, staunchly anti-Darwinian, and sometimes adopted a quinarian viewpoint. Although he never travelled widely, he described species from around the world on the basis of specimens, especially of the larger, curious, and colourful species, obtained by naturalists and collectors in England.


Life and work

Westwood was born in a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
family in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
, the son of medal and die maker, John Westwood (1774–1850) and Mary, daughter of Edward Betts. He went to school at the Friends' School, Sheffield and later at
Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...
when the family moved there. He apprenticed briefly to become a solicitor and worked briefly as a partner in a firm but gave up a career in law for his interests. In his spare time he studied Anglo-Saxon and medieval manuscripts and earned a living by illustrating and writing. His early works included reproductions of old manuscripts and illuminations. It was in 1824 that he met the entomologist Reverend
Frederick William Hope Frederick William Hope (3 January 1797 – 15 April 1862) was an English clergyman, naturalist, collector, and entomologist, who founded a professorship at the University of Oxford to which he gave his entire collections of insects in 1849 (now ...
for the first time and they were close friends. In 1833 Westwood and Hope were founding members of the
Entomological Society of London The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of London ...
and Westwood served as its secretary in 1834. In the same year, Hope had his insect collections organized by Westwood. This allowed Westwood to examine and describe insects from around the world. When Hope decided to gift away his collections to
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in 1849 he got Westwood to be appointed a curator of the collections. Westwood was appointed in 1857 and he also donated his own insect specimens to the Hope Collection. Hope also worked on setting up a new zoology chair endowed an entomological position in Oxford University, Westwood was the first nominee and selected as Hope professor in 1861. He received an MA by decree in 1861 and joined
Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
. Among the prominent writers and naturalists he associated with was James Rennie, whom he assisted in the editing of
Gilbert White Gilbert White FRS (18 July 1720 – 26 June 1793) was a " parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist, ecologist, and ornithologist. He is best known for his ''Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne''. Life White was born on ...
's ''
The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne ''The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne'', or just ''The Natural History of Selborne'' is a book by English parson-naturalist Gilbert White (1720–1793). It was first published in 1789 by his brother Benjamin. It has been continuous ...
'' in 1833. In his early writings he was influenced by the
quinarian system The quinarian system was a method of zoological classification which was popular in the mid 19th century, especially among British naturalists. It was largely developed by the entomologist William Sharp Macleay in 1819. The system was further pro ...
, but tended to be a general natural theologian. Although he worked on insect classification and diversity for more than thirty years from the publication of Darwin's ''Origin of Species'', he never accepted ideas on evolution. Darwin even suspected that an anonymous author of a bad review of his book in the ''Athenæum'' to have been Westwood. That review was however by John Leifchild although Westwood remained a critic of Darwin to the extent that he proposed a “permanent endowment of a lecturer t Oxfordto combat the errors of Darwinism.” He considered mimetic resemblances of insects as freaks of nature. Westwood was succeeded in the Hope chair by
E.B. Poulton Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE, HFRSE Linnean Society of London, FLS (27 January 1856 – 20 November 1943) was a British evolutionary biologist, a lifelong advocate of natural selection through a period in ...
who adopted evolutionary views. Westwood was among the first to attempt an estimate of the total number of species of insects which he put at half a million.


Family, learned societies and later life

In 1839 Westwood married Eliza Richardson (''d''. 1882), who accompanied him on all his archæological tours, and who assisted in making sketches and rubbings of the inscribed stones for his ‘''Lapidarium Walliæ''.’ Westwood was a Fellow of the
Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
(elected 1827) and president of the
Entomological Society of London The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of London ...
(1852–1853). He received the Royal Society's medal, based on recommendations from many including Darwin, in 1855 for his work on insects. In 1883 he was honoured in the Jubilee year of the Entomological Society as honorary life president of the society. He was also on the staff of the ''Gardener's Chronicle'' serving as a bridge between gardeners and entomologists. He was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1883. A fall in 1884 led to an arm injury that ended his studies. On 30 December 1892, not long after returning home from a convention in London, Westwood had suddenly collapsed of a
cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
, which left him hospitalised. He slipped into a coma just one day later and died on 2 January 1893. His funeral took place on 6 January 1893, and he was interred in
St Sepulchre's Cemetery __NOTOC__ St Sepulchre's Cemetery is a cemetery located on Walton Street, Jericho, central Oxford, England. The cemetery was opened in 1848 as a cemetery for the Oxford parishes of St Giles, St Paul, St Michael, and St Mary Magdalen. It was ...
, Oxford.


Legacy

The J. O. Westwood Medal, awarded every two years by the Royal Entomological Society, is named in his honour. The ichneumon wasp genus ''Westwoodia'' was erected by Brullé in 1846. A vestry in St Andrew's Church, Sandford-on-Thames was constructed in 1893 in his honour.


Works

The following is a partial list:


General

* Class Insecta. ''In'' Griffith, E. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organisation by the Baron Cuvier. Whittaker, London. 796 pp (1832). *
An introduction to the modern classification of insects.
' Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London. (−1839) *
The Entomologists Textbook
'. (1838). * ''Synopsis of the genera of British Insects''. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London. 158 pp. (1840
The full text
*
The Cabinet of Oriental Entomology
' (1848)
Arcana Entomologica, or illustrations of new, rare, and interesting exotic insects
Volumes 1 & 2. olume 1 published in parts, 1841-1843. Volume 2 published in parts, 1843-1845 *
Thesaurus Entomologicus Oxoniensis: or illustrations of new, rare and interesting insects, for the most part coloured, in the collections presented to the University of Oxford by the Rev
F.W. Hope''. London: McMillan & Co., i–xxiv, 205 pp., 40 pls (1873-1874) ublished in 4 parts: Part I, pp. 1–56 in 1873; parts II-IV in 1874


Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

* Description of several British forms amongst the parasitic hymenopterous insects. ''London & Edinburgh Phil. Mag. J. Sci.'' 1: 127–129 (1832). * Further notices of the British parasitic hymenopterous insects; together with the "Transactions of a fly with a long tail," observed by Mr. E. W. Lewis; and additional observations. ''Magazine of Natural History'' 6: 414–421. (1833). * Descriptions of several new British forms amongst the parasitic hymenopterous insects. ''London & Edinburgh Phil. Mag. J. Sci.'' 2: 443–445 (1833)
The full text
* Descriptions of several new British forms amongst the parasitic hymenopterous insects. ''London & Edinburgh Phil. Mag. J. Sci.'' 3: 342–344 1833. * "...Hymenopterous Insects, which Mr Westwood regarded as new to science." ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 3: 68–72. (1835
The full text
* Characters of new genera and species of hymenopterous insects. ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 3: 51–72 (1835)
The full text
* Observations on the genus ''Typhlopone'', with descriptions of several exotic species of ants. ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History 6: 81–89'' (1840
The full text
* On the Evaniidae and some allied genera of hymenopterous insects. ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (1)7: 535–538 (1841). * Monograph of the hymenopterous group, Dorylides. ''Arcana Entomologica'' 1(5): 73–80 (1842
The full text
* On Evania and some allied genera of hymenopterous insects. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 3(4): 237–278 (1843). * Description of a new species of the hymenopterous genus ''Aenictus'', belonging to the Dorylidae. ''Journal of Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London'' 1840–1846: 85. (1843)
The full text
* Description of a new dorylideous insect from South Africa, belonging to the genus ''Aenictus''. ''Transactions of the Entomological Society of London'' 4: 237–238 (1847). * Description of the "Driver" ants, described in the preceding article. ''Transactions of the Entomological Society of London'' 5: 16–18 (1847). * Descriptions of some new species of exotic Hymenoptera belonging to ''Evania'' and the allied genera, being a supplement to a memoir on those insects published in the third volume of the Transactions of the Entomological Society. ''Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London'' (2)1: 213–234. (1851). * Descriptions of some new species of short-tongued bees belonging to the genus ''Nomia''. ''Transactions of the Entomological Society of London'' 1875: 207–222. (1875). * Contributions to fossil entomology. ''Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London'' 10: 378–396 1854
The full text


Lepidoptera

* With
Henry Noel Humphreys Henry Noel Humphreys (1810–1879), Humphreys, Henry Noel, in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28. was a British illustrator, naturalist, entomologist, and numismatist. Humphreys was born on 4 January 1810 in Birmingham, th ...
British Moths and Their Transformations. London: William Smith, 1843–1845. 2 Volumes.


Mantodea Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

* Revisio Insectorum Familiae Mantidarum, speciebus novis aut minus cognitis descriptis et delineatis. – Revisio Mantidarum. Gurney & Jackson, London. 55pp. & 14 plates. (1889).


Phasmida The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as D ...

* Insectorum Arachnoidumque Decades duo. ''Zoological Journal'', 5(10): 440-453, pl. 22. (1834). * Catalogue of the Orthopterous Insects in the Collection of British Museum. Part I: Phasmidae. British Museum, London. (1859). * Heteropteryx hopei, Westw. ''Transactions of the Entomological Society of London'', 2(3): 16-17.(1864).


References


External links

* *
John Obadiah Westwood
* ttp://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/collections-library/collections-and-library-index.html Manuscriptsat the
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
*''Arcana entomologica'', 1845 at Oxford Digital Library
Volume OneVolume Two



An introduction to the modern classification of insects : founded on the natural habits and corresponding organisation of the different families (1839)

J. O. Westwood's illustrated works in the Biodiversity Heritage Library
*
OUM
Description of Westwood's collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Westwood, John O. 1805 births 1893 deaths Hymenopterists Myrmecologists English coleopterists English taxonomists English lepidopterists English curators 19th-century British zoologists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Presidents of the Royal Entomological Society Hope Professors of Zoology Members of the Cambrian Archaeological Association Royal Medal winners Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford People from Sheffield Scientists from Yorkshire Burials at St Sepulchre's Cemetery