Charles Henry Tyler Townsend

Charles Henry Tyler Townsend (5 December 1863 – 17 March 1944) was an American entomologist specializing in the study of tachinids (Tachinidae), a large and diverse family of parasitic flies (Diptera). He was perhaps the most prolific publisher of new tachinids, naming and describing some 3000 species and genera. He made important contributions to the biological control of insect pests and he was the first to identify the insect vector of a debilitating disease in Peru. Townsend was also a controversial figure and criticism of his approach to insect taxonomy continues to this day.

Townsend was born in Oberlin, Ohio in 1863. He attended high school in Constantine, Michigan and graduated in 1882. From 1887 to 1891 he studied medicine at Columbian University (now George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. At the same time he worked in the United States Department of Agriculture as an assistant entomologist for Charles V. Riley.

During his long career, Townsend held a number of different positions. In 1891 he joined the faculty at the New Mexico College of Agriculture in Las Cruces, teaching zoology and entomology. In addition to teaching, he collected and studied local insects, especially those that had the potential to become agricultural pests. He made notes on 400 insect species in New Mexico and authored 90 publications.

In 1892 Townsend traded positions with a friend and fellow entomologist, T.D.A. Cockerell, and became curator of the Public Museum in Kingston, Jamaica. Townsend focused on educating the local farmers about insect pests and how to control them. In 1894 he was rehired by the USDA to study the appearance of a new pest, the cotton boll weevil in Texas and northern Mexico. He quickly determined the seriousness of the threat and made recommendations for controlling the outbreak. In 1896 the USDA sent him to tropical Mexico to continue his research on the boll weevil and search for predators or parasites that might provide biological control. He was unsuccessful in finding effective biological control agents but he did succeed in collecting a wide array of flies for his own studies.

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