William Dwight Pierce (November 16, 1881,

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

April 29, 1967,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

) was an American

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

. He was one of the earliest students to graduate from the Department of Entomology and Ornithology at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. He worked as an entomologist at the Los Angeles County Museum (now the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

). He was particularly interested in

insect pest Economic entomology is a field of entomology, which involves the study of insects that benefit or harm humans, domestic animals, and crops. Insects that cause losses are termed as pests. Some species can cause indirect damage by spreading diseases ...

s, including the cotton boll weevil, and their control. Mainly between 1904 and 1931, he published numerous scientific papers and other works on the topic; perhaps the most significant being the book ''Sanitary Entomology'' (1921), of which a sixth edition was published in 2010. During the late 1930s, he taught entomology at

Glendale Junior College Glendale Community College (GCC) is a public community college in Glendale, California. History The college was founded as Glendale Junior College in 1927, to serve the Glendale Union High School District which at the time included La Cr ...

in Los Angeles; where he influenced Charles Anthony Fleschner, who went on to have a distinguished career in entomology at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

. Some materials relating to Pierce are held in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The

weevil Weevils are beetles belonging to the Taxonomic rank, superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small, less than in length, and Herbivore, herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They b ...

species ''

Premnotrypes piercei ''Premnotrypes'' (Andean potato weevil) is a genus of weevils (which are beetles). It was described in 1914 by American entomologist W. Dwight Pierce (1881-1967). Several species in the genus are pests, because the larvae feed on potato tube ...

'' and have been named in his honor.

References

1881 births 1967 deaths People from Champaign, Illinois University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni American entomologists Scientists from Illinois 20th-century American zoologists {{US-entomologist-stub