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Charles Lester Marlatt

About

Charles Lester Marlatt (1863–1954) was an American entomologist. Born in 1863 at Atchison, Kansas, he was educated at Kansas State Agricultural College, where he was assistant professor for two years. He is the person who introduced the ladybug insect Chilocorus similis into the United States to control the San Jose scale insect, which was first discovered in San Jose, California in 1880 by John Henry Comstock and named by him. Marlatt worked for the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. In 1912 he was appointed chairman of the Federal Horticultural Board. He was president of the Entomological Society of Washington in 1897–98 and of the American Association of Economic Entomologists in 1899.