Ezra Townsend Cresson

Ezra Townsend Cresson (18 June 1838, in Byberry – 19 April 1926, in Swarthmore) was an American entomologist who specialised in the Hymenoptera order of insects. He wrote Synopsis of the families and genera of the Hymenoptera of America, north of Mexico Philadelphia: Paul C. Stockhausen, Entomological printer (1887) and many other works. Cresson also documented many new species including Nomada texana.

In 1859, Cresson founded the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, together with James Ridings and George Newman. The society was later renamed to the American Entomological Society in 1867.

Two of his sons, George Bringhurst Cresson (1859–1919) and Ezra Townsend Cresson, Jr. (1876–1948), were also entomologists and members of the American Entomological Society. George B. Cresson was a general naturalist and specialist in ants, and Ezra T. Cresson Jr. was a specialist in Diptera.