Description
The papers of Dudley B. Moulton, Academy Fellow and entomologist, whose work focused on the study of thrips (order Thysanoptera).
Included are correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, drawings, and workbooks.
Background
Dudley B. Moulton was born in San Jose, California on December 29, 1879. He received his B.A. in 1903 and M.A. in 1906, both
in entomology and both from Stanford University. From 1904 to 1906, he was County Entomologist for Santa Clara County, California.
In 1906 he was appointed Agent and Expert in the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. In 1909 he
was appointed State Commissioner of Horticulture and in 1911 he was Agriculture Commissioner, for the city and county of San
Francisco. He was appointed Director of Agriculture for the state of California in 1931.
Moulton made life-history studies on thrips, tiny insects that feed on plant juices. The Bureau of Entomology in Washington
published his studies and they spread to several foreign countries including England, Australia, India, Japan and countries
in South America.
Moulton, who had been a member of the California Academy of Sciences since 1925, gave a presentation in 1940 titled, “The
Thysanoptera, Their Economic Importance and Their Relation to Other Insects,” at the August meeting of the California Academy
of Sciences. In 1941, he became a Fellow of the Academy.
Dudley B. Moulton died on July 5, 1951, after receiving worldwide recognition for his study of thrips.