388 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



included also some account of the attacks on maize by the larvae of a 

 small moth (Conogethes punctiferalis). 



]\Ir. Tryon's official post when he began publishing on entomology 

 was with the Queensland Museum, and it appears that his duties had 

 been largely in connection with the Intercolonial Rabbit Commission 

 of New South Wales and the Stock Disease Board of Queensland. 

 He continued to publish reports under the Department of Agriculture, 

 but was not appointed definitely as Entomologist to the Department 

 until 1895. His title was Entomologist and Vegetable Pathologist and 

 Inspector under the Diseases of Plants Act. He continued to hold 

 this position and published actively until his retirement. These publi- 

 cations occur mainly in the Reports of the Department of Agriculture 

 and also in the Queensland Agricultural Journal which commenced 

 publication in 1897 and is still being published. Almost every volume 

 in the whole series contains entomological articles of some practical 

 importance, and these articles indicate that Mr. Tryon kept well 

 posted as to the entomological work being done in other parts of the 

 world. 



Years later Queensland was confronted by an entirely new agri- 

 cultural problem, namely the overrunning of her great pasture lands 

 by a cactus plant of the genus Opuntia. Introduced originally as an 

 ornamental, this plant escaped from cultivation and spread with enor- 

 mous rapidity and with most disastrous results. Failing to stop its 

 spread by any means at hand, the Queensland Government appointed 

 a Prickly-Pear Commission, and sent Mr. Tryon and Prof. T. Harvey 

 Johnston, a botanist, to America and other parts of the world in 

 search of insects or diseases that would control the Opuntia. They 

 arrived in Washington in August, 1913. Mr. Tryon was then appar- 

 ently about 60 years of age, with a closely clipped, gray beard, and 

 was quite markedly hard of hearing. Many countries were visited by 

 these men (I think they went quite around the world) and a definite 

 point was finally selected at Uvalde, Texas, where agents of the Com- 

 mission have been centered for the past 12 years or more. Fortunately, 

 the insect enemies of Opuntia had been studied prior. to the visit of 

 the Australians, by Dr. W. D. Hunter and Messrs. J. D. IMitchell and 

 F. C. Pratt of Doctor Hunter's force, and a bulletin had been published. 

 Since the establishment of the station at Uvalde, insect enemies of 

 Opuntia have been sent to Australia in very great numbers, and, from 

 late reports, at least two of the species sent from the United States 

 have proved to be very valuable and arc apparently in the way of 

 stopping the plague. 



Mr. Tryon retired from the position of Government Entomologist 

 on December 31, 1925, but was kept on as a Temporary Pathologist 



