Wilmatte Porter Cockerell (July 28, 1869 – March 15, 1957) was an American entomologist and high school biology teacher who discovered and collected a large number of insect specimens and other organisms.

[2] There she met Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell, a self-taught entomologist from England specialising in Hymenoptera, who was also employed at that college.

[3] After her marriage Cockerell combined teaching with collecting, and wrote a number of papers on entomology, some as sole author.

Both Cockerells were badly paid, and it is known Wilmatte sometimes supplemented the family income by selling specimens she obtained while on her field trips to professional full-time insect collectors, who in some cases altered the collection locality on the labels to make the insects appear more exotic and increase their value.

[1] In February 1904 Science Magazine published a short article Cockerell had sent in about a local plant she mistakenly called Picradenia odorata utilis which a friend had suggested might be a source of rubber, and that her husband had begun to research.

[1] In August 1902, Cockerell took a field trip to Truchas Peak, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, where she collected bees and other insects.

[4] During the summers after 1911, the Cockerells undertook various field trips the world over collecting bees, insects, and studying flora and fauna.

There she collected numerous insect specimens including many wasps, some of which were species previously unknown to science.

[19] In August 1918, Cockerell and her husband went on a field trip to Peaceful Valley, Colorado, where again she collected specimens of numerous species previously unknown to science.

[23] The expedition visited many areas of Africa including the Congo where the group collected over 16,000 specimens, especially of bees.

[5] After Theodore died in San Diego, California, in 1948, Cockerell taught at Piney Woods School near Jackson, Mississippi.