Charles Valentine Riley

Charles Valentine Riley ( born September 19, 1843 in Chelsea, London, † September 14, 1895, Washington DC) was an American entomologist and is considered the father of biological pest control.

1860 Riley left England and went to America and began in 1863 entomological records in the Chicago Prairie Farmer, a leading agricultural economic journal to publish. A little later he became editor, in addition to his reports, he also produced numerous drawings.

On September 14, 1895, he died in a bicycle accident. He retired to a skull fracture, became not out of consciousness and died the same day. He left behind his wife, five daughters and one son.

Career

1868 Riley State Entomologist in Missouri and founded in September 1868 along with Benjamin Walsh Then the journal The American Entomologist. After Walsh died the following year, he led the sheet on alone.

Between 1873 and 1877 taught locusts in many Western countries to significant damage. He convinced the government that the United States Entomological Commission convened in 1876 and Chairman of the Locust Commission and therefore moved to Washington, DC.

In 1882, he donated part of his collection of insects to the U.S. National Museum, now the Smithsonian Institution, and thus laid the foundation stone. In 1885 he became the first curator of insects at the museum and then handed over to the museum his entire collection consisting of 115,000 mounted specimens of 20,000 species, 2800 bottles and 3000 drawers with preparations.

In 1878 he was an entomologist at the Department of Agriculture of the United States ( USDA), his two assistants were Theodore Pergande ( 1840 to 1916 ) and Leland Ossian Howard ( 1857-1950 ). Riley announced as early as 1879 because of differences with his superiors, but the place was back in 1881 and stayed until 1894.

Research

In 1864 he began with farmers in the Midwest, by the Rocky Mountain Locust ( Melanoplus spretus ), a migratory locust, were plagued to build a network with regular correspondence. His observations and the information from the letters he published together with drawings, which triggered a keen interest in the life cycle of insects in the United States and in Canada.

Along with Walsh in 1868, he published the first evidence for the mass migration of monarch butterflies in North America and thus lays the foundation for the study of the moth. 1871 he described and illustrated the life and mimicry of the monarch butterfly and Limenitis archippus. Charles Darwin wrote him this: " I am struck with admiration at your powers of observation .... The discussion on mimetic insects Seems to me particularly good and original" ( German: "I am full of admiration for their powers of observation ... The discussion mimetic insects seems to me to be particularly good and original ").

In 1876, he discovered that he described in 1872 small inconspicuous yucca moth Tegeticula dusted yucca Yucca ella species, an example of co-evolution, the Darwin particularly strong interest. In 1892 he published his research results and could explain many of the former questions by Darwin's theory of evolution.

He recognized one of the first that the American vine Vitis labrusca was resistant to phylloxera. Together with Jules Émile Planchon he grafted the French grape varieties on V. labrusca sticks and thus save the French wine growers from financial ruin. For this merit he received the French Grand Gold Medal and in 1884 he was appointed a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.

The California citrus industry was due to the strong propagation of the dragged Australian mealy bugs the late 1880s, shortly before the ruin. The plague was so great that farmers dug the covered with lice citrus trees and burned. In the winter of 1888 Riley led the Australian ladybird Rodolia cardinalis one to combat and already the following autumn were everywhere, where the beetles were exposed to lice under control. This was the first success of biological control.

Riley also studied the life cycles of the so-called periodic cicadas of the genus Magicicada with their 13 or 17 -year life cycles.

Foundation

After the death of his youngest daughter, a foundation was set up in 1978, whose task it was to assist in the establishment of the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation. Founded in 1985, the Foundation 's mission to promote the protection and wise management of natural resources and to give citizens of the United States the nature and importance of modern agriculture.

Writings

• Yucca moths: New Species of Prodoxidae. In: Proceedings of the Entomological Society. Volume II, No. 3 Washington December 15, 1892, pp. 312-319.
• Yucca Insects and Yucca Pollination notes. In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. Volume VIII, June 20, 1893, pp. 41-54, Plate IX.
• Notes on Pronuba and Yucca Pollination Nations. In: Proceedings of the Washington Entomological Society. Volume 1, No. 3, 1889, pp. 1-5.

• The Ox Bot in the United States: Habits and Natural History of Hypoderma lineata. In: Insect Life. Volume IV, Nos. 9 and 10 June 1892.
• On insects Affecting the agave. In: Proceedings of the Entomological Society. June 15, 1892, with two articles of Riley: A probable Micro Gaster parasite of Eleodes in the imago stage
• Our American warbler ox ( Hypoderma lineatum ) ( Small German cattle warble fly )

• The Rocky Mountain Locust. Further Facts About the Natural Enemies of Locusts. In: Second Report of the United States Entomological Commission. 1880, pp. 259-271.
• The Locust Plague in the United States: Being more particularly a treatise on the Rocky Mountain Locust or so - called grasshopper, as it the occurs east of the Rocky Mountains, with practical recommendations for its destruction. Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 1877.
• The Rocky Mountain Locust. Remedies and Devices for its Destruction. In: 'The First Report of the United States Entomological Commission. U. S. Department of Interior, 1878, pp. 351-420.
• Destruction of the Young or unfledged Locusts. In: Bulletin of the United States Entomological Commission. No. 1 U. S. Department of Interior June 1877.

• Notes on the Aphididae of the United States. With descriptions of Species Occurring west of the Mississippi. In: Bulletin of the Survey. Volume 5, No. 4 Riley and J. Monell, January 22, 1879, Table I-II.

• The Hessian Fly on Imported Insect. In: Canadian Entomologist. Volume IXX, 1888, S 121, seven boards.

• Potato Pest. In: An illustrated account of the Colorado Potato -beetle and the other insect foes of the potato in North America with suggestions for Their repression and methods For their destruction. In 1876.