Charles Lester Marlatt

Charles Lester Marlatt (September 26, 1863 – March 3, 1954) was an American entomologist who worked in the Bureau of Entomology of the US department of agriculture. He was involved in the creation of Plant Quarantine Act, applications of classical biological control, and recorded the emergence of broods of periodical cicadas across the United States. He also specialized on the systematics of the Tenthredinidae.

Early life and education Born on September 26, 1863, in Atchison, Kansas, Marlatt was educated at Kansas State Agricultural College (B.S., 1884; M.S., 1886) where he was a classmate of David Fairchild. The university itself grew out of Bluemont College begun in 1858 by several promoters who included Marlatt's father.

Career After graduation, Marlatt became an assistant professor for two years at Kansas and his skills in drawing insects was noted by Charles Valentine Riley. Riley recruited him into the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture in 1889. He was involved in introduced the ladybug insect Chilocorus similis into the United States to control the San Jose scale insect, which was first discovered in San Jose, California in 1880 by John Henry Comstock and named by him. In 1912, he was appointed chairman of the Federal Horticultural Board. He was president of the Entomological Society of Washington in 1897–98 and of the American Association of Economic Entomologists in 1899.

Marlatt's 1907 description of periodic cicadas remains a classic in the field. In this article, Marlatt proposed a grouping of periodic cicadas into 30 different broods, each given a Roman numeral. Broods I–XVII assigned brood numbers for each of 17 sequential calendar years to 17-year cicadas. Broods XVIII–XXX assigned 13 sequential calendar years to 13-year cicadas. Subsequent research has established that, in fact, not every year produces a brood of periodical cicadas. There are only 15 distinct broods, not 30, but Marlatt's scheme continues to be used.

In Marlatt's role as chief of Chief of the Plant Quarantine and Control Administration he became involved in the passing of the Plant Quarantine Act which was finally passed in 1912.

Marlatt and his newly-wed wife travelled to China and Japan in 1901–2 in search of the natural enemies of the San Jose scale. His wife became ill due to an unknown disease that she contracted on the trip that ultimately caused her death. Marlatt became Chief of the Bureau in 1927 following the retirement of Leland Ossian Howard. In 1922, Marlatt received an honorary doctorate from Kansas State University. He retired in 1938, and died on March 3, 1954, aged 90.

Legacy Marlatt's red brick home in Washington, DC was built in 1908 and remained in family hands until it was sold in 1970. The Marlatt family maintained the building until selling it in 1970. The wooden banisters have carvings of cicadas. From 1973 to 1975, the Marlatt Mansion was owned by the government of the USSR, which used it to house the Soviet Embassy's Office of the Commercial Counselor, as well as offices of the KGB. During that time, it is believed to have served as the temporary residence of Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Since 1994, it has served as the main campus building of a private, accredited graduate school of national security, intelligence, and international affairs, The Institute of World Politics. One of Marlatt's granddaughters, a retired CIA officer, visited the mansion in the 1990s.