Wade Fox

Rufus Wade Fox Jr. (June 2, 1920 – September 20, 1964), was an American zoologist and herpetologist from the University of California, Berkeley. He specialized in the anatomy of snakes and the systematics of the western garter snakes.

Wade Fox
Born	June 2, 1920 Hilton, Virginia, US
Died	(1964-09-20)September 20, 1964 (aged 43-44)
Education	UC Berkeley University of North Carolina
Scientific career
Fields	Herpetology
Institutions	University of Southern California Louisiana State University
Theses	Biology of the garter snakes of the San Francisco Bay Region  (1950) Variation in the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) along the lower Columbia River  (1946)
Doctoral advisor	Robert C. Stebbins

Biography

Wade Fox was born on June 2, 1920, in Hilton, Virginia.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1943 and then earned a Master's (1946) and doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley, working as Curatorial Assistant of in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology from 1943 to 1949, and earning a PhD under Robert C. Stebbins in 1950.^[1] His dissertation topic was "Biology of the Garter Snakes of the San Francisco Bay Region".^[2] Later he became president of Herpetologists' League and an editor of the journal Copeia.^[3]

He named several garter snake (Thamnophis) subspecies, including Thamnophis elegans terrestris, Thamnophis elegans aquaticus (now a synonym of T. atratus atratus) and Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi.^[2] He is commemorated in the name of the Fox's mountain meadow snake (Adelophis foxi ).^[3]

Wade Fox died of a heart attack following heart surgery on September 20, 1964.^[1][3]

Partial bibliography

• Fox W (1951). "Relationships among the garter snakes of the Thamnophis elegans rassenkreis". Univ. California Publ. Zool. 50: 485–529.
• Fox W (1951). "The status of the gartersnake, Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia". Copeia. 1951 (4): 257–267. doi:10.2307/1438309. JSTOR 1438309.
• Fox W (1954). "Genetic and environmental variation in the timing of the reproductive cycles of male garter snakes". J. Morphol. 95 (3): 415–450. doi:10.1002/jmor.1050950303. S2CID 84375536.

References

1. Dessauer HC (1965). "Wade Fox, Jr., 1920–1964". Copeia. 1965 (1): 123. JSTOR 1441262.
2. Rodríguez-Robles JA, Good DA, Wake DB (2003). "Brief history of herpetology in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, with a list of type specimens of recent amphibians and reptiles" (PDF). University of California Publications in Zoology. 131: 1–119. ISSN 0068-6506.
3. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Fox, W.", p. 93).