Clara Southmayd Ludlow (1852–1924) was an American entomologist, the first woman known to publish extensively on the taxonomy of mosquitoes and their occurrence in relation to the incidence of mosquito-borne diseases.

[2] In 1880 she was enumerated by the federal census at the Monticello Female Seminary[5] near Alton, Illinois, her occupation listed as "Music [Teacher]."

In 1898, she had her first formal exposure to entomology as a student working in the mosquito laboratory of Professor George W. Herrick during an epidemic of yellow fever.

[1] After graduation in 1901 with her Masters of Arts degree, Ludlow traveled to Manila, Republic of the Philippines,[1] to visit one of her two younger brothers, Henry Hunt,[3] who was stationed there as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army.

There she worked on disease-vectoring mosquitoes with the Army Surgeon General's Office, encouraged by Dr. William J. Calvert of the Manila Plague Laboratory.

[2] From 1916 until 1920 she was officially an anatomist at the Army Medical Museum, now the National Museum of Health and Medicine, on the Walter Reed Army Medical Center post in Washington, D.C.[1] She was deeply involved in mosquito taxonomy, identification and public health efforts, including a project that resulted in the production of an educational film, Mosquito Eradication, in 1918.