James Yate Johnson (c. 1820, in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of t ...

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

– 2 February 1900, in

Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...

) was an English

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. Johnson lived in

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

from around 1851, studied marine

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

crustacea Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

sea anemone Sea anemones ( ) are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemone ...

s and

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s and terrestrial

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s and

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es. He collected specimens for other naturalists; for instance, George Busk, who in 1859 wrote "Zoophytology: On some Madeiran Polyzoa." Collected by J. Yates Johnson, Esq. in the ''Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science'', vol. 7, pp. 65–67. He discovered '' Halargyreus johnsonii'' and '' Melanocetus johnsonii'' Günther, 1864 during his time in Madeira. Johnson explored the São Vicente Caves after being informed of their existence by locals on Madeira in 1885. The caves were opened to the public on 1 October 1996, being one of the first caves of volcanic origins to be opened to the public in Portugal.

Family

He was the son of John Henry Johnson and Ann Yate, also brother of John Henry Johnson (patent attorney).

Works

Partial list *1863 Descriptions of five new species of fishes obtained at

. '' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 1863 (33): 36–46, pl. VII *1866. Description of '' Trachichthys darwini'', a new species of berycoid fish from Madeira. ''Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.'' : 311–315. *1867. Description of a new genus and a new species of macrurous decapod crustaceans, belonging to the Penaeidae, discovered at Madeira. ''Proc. zool. Soc. Lond.'' 1867, pp. 895–901. – describes the genus '' Funchalia'' *1880. *1899. Notes on some Sponges belonging to the Clionidae obtained at Madeira. ''Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society'' 1899:461-463, pl.

Taxon named in his honor

*'' Halargyreus johnsonii'' *'' Melanocetus johnsonii'' Günther, 1864

References

Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism
English zoologists English botanists English naturalists British Mauritius people 1900s deaths 1820 births People from Funchal {{UK-zoologist-stub