Townend Glover (1813-83) and the First Entomological Light Trap

Townend Glover, first U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist and unacknowledged inventor of the first successful light trap for insects, was one of the more interesting entomological investigators in mid-nineteenth century America. Modern historians who have written brief notices of Glover have gained most of their information from a very rare Government pamphlet by his friend and assistant Charles Dodge (1858), who unfortunately does not mention the matter of the light tray at all. The present account, assembled from various nineteenth century sources, briefly summarizes Glover\u27s career and presents evidence for his invention of the portentous American Moth Trap