Member

James, a specialist on bees, chalcids, and thrips, was born in West Point, Nebraska, on August 24, 1880. He attended the University of Nebraska and for a short time was head of the Biology Department of the University. Later he obtained an MS degree from George Washington University. In 1904, he served as a special field agent on cotton insects for the U.S. Bureau of Entomology and published articles on the Hymenoptera. In 1908, he succeeded W. H. Ashmead of the U.S. National Museum, becoming assistant curator and later associate curator. There he worked primarily on bees and chalcids. In 1919, James left the National Museum to engage in business. From 1923 to 1929 he was employed by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture at Raleigh. From 1930 to 1940 he did quarantine work and insect identification for the U.S. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine in the port of New York. There he studied the Hymenoptera and Thysanoptera and in 1940 became a specialist on thrips in the Bureau’s Division of Insect Identification, where he remained until his retirement, a few months before his death. James wrote about 75 papers on bees and chalcids and over 25 on thrips. James was elected to the Washington Biologists’ Field Club in 1909 and terminated his membership in 1927. James died on December 20, 1950.