Andrew Nelson Caudell

Who was Andrew Nelson Caudell?

Andrew Nelson Caudell was an entomologist who specialized in the study of grasshoppers and other insects in the order Orthoptera, becoming a prolific author of taxonomic studies, a member and President of the Entomological Society of Washington, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Caudell was born August 18, 1872, in Indianapolis, Indiana, a son of Andrew Jackson and Mary Jane Caudell. Raised in Oklahoma, he completed his Bachelor of Science degree at Oklahoma Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical College in Stillwater, Oklahoma, now Oklahoma State University, and undertook postgraduate study at Massachusetts Agricultural College, now the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

After a brief employment with the Gypsy Moth Project in Massachusetts, he joined the Division of Insects of the United States Department of Agriculture in 1898 and remained with the Department until his death. In addition to his USDA duties, he served as custodian of the Orthoptera collection of the Division of Insects of the United States National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.