Benjamin J. Kaston

Benjamin Julian Kaston (July 2, 1906 – August 24, 1985) was an American arachnologist.

Kaston was born in New York City and graduated from North Carolina State University in 1930. In 1934, he earned a PhD in zoology from Yale University, where he first began studying spiders. After graduating from Yale, Kaston worked for four years at the Connecticut Experiment Station studying elm beetles and Dutch elm disease. In his spare time, he studied spiders and published several papers on them. In 1938, he obtained a teaching position at Brenau College in Gainesville, Georgia, a small liberal arts college for women. In 1941, Kaston completed his first book, Spiders of Connecticut. Its publication was delayed for seven years, however, due to World War II.