Howard, Leland Ossian, 1857–1950, American entomologist, b. Rockford, Ill., grad. Cornell (B.S., 1877), Ph.D. Georgetown Univ., 1896. Associated with the U.S. Bureau of Entomology from 1878 (as its chief, 1894–1927, and as its principal entomologist until 1931), he influenced economic and medical entomology in the United States. He waged war against insect parasites of humans (especially the mosquito and housefly) and against crop pests such as the boll weevil and gypsy moth. Among his best-known works are The Insect Book (1901), Mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies (et al., 4 vol., 1912–17), The Insect Menace (1931), and his autobiography, Fighting the Insects (1933).
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