Robert Charles Wroughton (15 August 1849, in Naseerabad – 15 May 1921) was an officer in the

Indian Forest Service The Indian Forest Service (IFS) is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India. The other two All India Services being the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service. It was constituted in the year 1966 und ...

from 10 December 1871 to 1904. He was a member of the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publi ...

(BNHS) and was interested in

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 ...

, particularly

ants Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,00 ...

and then later took an interest in

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

s due to his interaction with

Reginald Innes Pocock Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist. Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edward ...

. His major work was on the

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s of India and after his retirement in 1904, became a regular worker at 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. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He initially took an interest in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n mammals and there was little material from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He persuaded his friends in India to collect specimens and this led to a collaborative mammal survey in 1911. Interest in small mammals was also raised by work on plague particularly due to the work of Captain Glen Liston who delivered a special address to the members of the BNHS. Collectors for the small mammal survey included C. A. Crump (Khandesh, Darjeeling), Sir Ernest Hotson (Baluchistan), R. Shunkara Narayan Pillay (Travancore), J. M. D. Mackenzie (Burma), Captain Philip Gosse (Poona, Nilgiris),

S. H. Prater Stanley Henry Prater (12 March 1890 – 12 October 1960) was an Anglo-Indian naturalist in India best known as a long-time affiliate of the Bombay Natural History Society and the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay, as ther curat ...

(Satara),

Charles McCann Yule Mervyn Charles McCann (4 December 1899 – 29 November 1980) was a naturalist in India. He wrote a popular book on the trees of India and edited a major regional flora apart from publishing many of his other observations, mainly in the jou ...

and others and the survey went on until 1923. It is believed to be the first collaborative biodiversity study in the world. The project accumulated 50,000 specimens over 12 years, especially of the smaller mammals and the information was published in 47 papers. Wroughton was also helped by his brother-in-law T. B. Fry who continued to work after his death in 1921.Kinnear, N. B. (1951) The history of Indian Mammalogy and Ornithology. Part 1. JBNHS 50:766-778 Several new species were discovered in the process. Numerous species are named after him including * Wroughton's Free-tailed Bat ('' Otomops wroughtoni'') * Many ant species: (''Aenictus wroughtonii'', ''Camponotus wroughtonii'', ''Cardiocondyla wroughtonii'', ''Carebara wroughtonii'', ''Chronoxenus wroughtonii'', ''Crematogaster wroughtonii'', ''Hypoponera confinis wroughtonii'', ''Lepisiota rothneyi wroughtonii'', ''Monomorium wroughtoni'', ''Monomorium wroughtonianum'', ''Pheidole wroughtonii'', ''Platythrea wroughtonii'', ''Polyrhachis wroughtonii'', ''Rhoptromyrmex wroughtonii'', ''Tapinoma wroughtonii'', ''Temnothorax wroughtonii'')

Publications

# Wroughton R C 1912a. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 1. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 21(2):392-410. # Wroughton R C 1912b. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 2. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 21(3):820-825. # Wroughton R C 1912c. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 3. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 21(3):826-844. # Wroughton R C 1912d. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 4. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 21(3):844-851. # Wroughton R C 1912e. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 5. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 21(4):1170-1195. # Wroughton R C and K V Ryley 1913a. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 6. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 22(1): 29-44. # Wroughton R C and K V Ryley 1913b. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 7. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 22(1): 45-47. # Wroughton R C and K V Ryley 1913c. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 8. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 22(1): 58-66. # Wroughton R C. 1913. Scientific results from the mammal survey # III. J. Bombay Nat. Hist Soc. 22(1): 13-21. # Wroughton R C 1914. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 15. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 23(2):282-301. # Wroughton R C 1915a. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 16. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 23(3):413-416. # Wroughton R C 1915b. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 17. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 23(4):695-720. # Wroughton R C. 1915c. Scientific results from the mammal survey # XI. J. Bombay Nat. Hist Soc. 24(1): 29-65. # Wroughton R C 1915d. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 18. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(1):79-96. # Wroughton R C 1915e. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 19. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(1):96-110. # Wroughton R C 1916a. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 20. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(2):291-309. # Wroughton R C 1916b. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India:Report 21. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(2):309-310. # Wroughton R C 1916c. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India:Report 22. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(2):311-316. # Wroughton R C 1916d. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India:Report 23. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(3):468-493. # Wroughton R C 1916e. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 24. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(4):749-758. # Wroughton R C 1916f. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India:Report 25. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(4):758-773. # Wroughton R C 1916g. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 26. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 24(4):773-782. # Wroughton R C. 1917a. Scientific results from the mammal survey # XV. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 25(1): 40-51 # Wroughton R C 1917b. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 27. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 25(1):63-71. # Wroughton R C 1917c. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 28. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 25(2):274-278. # Wroughton R C. 1918a. Scientific results from the mammal survey # XVII. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 25(3): 361. # Wroughton R C 1918b. Summary of the results from the Indian mammal survey of Bombay natural History Society, Part I. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 25(4): 547-598. # Wroughton R C 1918c. Summary of the results from the Indian mammal survey of Bombay natural History Society, Part II. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 26(1): 19-58. # Wroughton R C 1919. Summary of the results from the Indian mammal survey of Bombay natural History Society, Part III. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 26(2): 338-378. # Wroughton R C 1920a. Summary of the results from the Indian mammal survey of Bombay natural History Society, Part VI. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(1): 57-85. # Wroughton R C 1920b. Summary of the results from the Indian mammal survey of Bombay natural History Society, PartVII. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(2): 301-313. # Wroughton R C 1920c. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 32.J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(2):314-322. # Wroughton R C 1921a. Summary of the results from the Indian mammal survey of Bombay natural History Society, Appendix. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(3):520-534. # Wroughton R C 1921b. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 33. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(3):545-549. # Wroughton R C 1921c. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 34. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(3):549-553. # Wroughton R C 1921d. Bombay Natural History Society's Mammal Survey of India: Report 35. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(3):553-554. # Wroughton R C. 1921e. Scientific results from the mammal survey # XXVI. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(3): 599-601. # Wroughton R C. 1921f. Scientific results from the mammal survey # XXVIII. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 27(4): 773-777. # Wroughton R C. 1921g. Scientific results from the mammal survey # XXIX. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 28(1): 23-25

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wroughton, Robert Charles Naturalists of British India 1849 births 1921 deaths Imperial Forestry Service officers Members of the Bombay Natural History Society