Dudley Moulton

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Dudley Moulton (1878–1951) was an American entomologist who studied thrips. He worked on quarantine duties and later led California’s Department of Agriculture. He was born on a farm in San Jose and earned his A.B. in 1903 and M.A. in 1906 from Stanford University, studying with Vernon Kellogg. He worked for Santa Clara County for a couple of years, then joined the quarantine service in San Francisco. He became interested in the pear thrip in 1904, a serious pest, and continued to study thrips outside his main job, asking colleagues to collect samples for him. In 1909 he became Deputy State Commissioner of Horticulture for California. In 1931 he was named director of the California Department of Agriculture. His thrips collection, later housed at the California Academy of Sciences, included about 25,000 slides and 10,000 preserved specimens. He died in 1951 at his son’s home in Pasadena. He was married to Maude and had two sons. He described many species of thrips.