WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 57 



(5) He conceived and directed the first great and successful inter- 

 national experiment in natural control — that of bringing the Australian 

 ladybird (Novius cardinalis) to this country, which resulted in the 

 strikingly rapid control of the white scale, thus saving the citrus 

 industry of California. 



These were his five greatest achievements, but in many directions 

 his influence was felt pronouncedly in the development of economic 

 entomology. Arid his work in a number of fields not seemingly 

 directly connected with applied work was of much importance, as 

 for example in his studies of the fertilization of Yucca by the yucca- 

 moths, and that on the hypermetamorphoses of the blister beetles. 



John Henry Comstock 



Professor Comstock was born at Janesville, Wisconsin, February 

 24, 1849. ^^ ^^'^s ^ young sailor on the Great Lakes at the time 

 when Cornell University was founded. He has told the story of his 

 early interest in flowers and insects and of his going to Cornell Uni- 

 versity when he heard of the institution as one that would give a 

 chance for a boy to work his way, supporting himself while getting 

 his education, and as one where everything was taught. He entered 

 the university in 1871 and graduated in 1874. He took natural his- 

 tory work, and was made an instructor in invertebrate zoology im- 

 mediately on graduation ; in fact, he taught entomology before he 

 graduated. I remember that I once heard David Starr Jordan (of 

 the class of 1872) say that he took entomology under Comstock at 

 a time when Comstock was two classes behind him. 



Soon after he took his Washington post, Riley employed Comstock 

 as a temporary field agent of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture during the summer of 1878, to study the cotton cater- 

 pillar in the South ; and when Riley resigned his position as Ento- 

 mologist of the United States Department of Agriculture in March 

 or April, 1879, Comstock was appointed to succeed him. An account 

 of this in full will be found in a later chapter. 



Riley retired to his house at the northwest corner of Thirteenth 

 and R Streets in Washington, taking E. A. Schwarz with him, and 

 there conducted the work of the United States Entomological Com- 

 mission for the two following years. 



In the meantime Comstock worked steadily away at the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. In addition to the writer, he had to assist him 

 Theodor Pergande who had been with Riley, Mrs. Comstock who 

 did some drawing and some clerical work, and, during the first 

 5 



