WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY — HOWARD 5O3 



very successful in California for many years, and has been sent from 

 that State to many different countries, in each case proving to be a 

 great aid in mealy-bug control. Koebele left California in the early 

 nineties, and was employed by the newly established Hawaiian Repub- 

 lic for which he traveled extensively in Pacific and Oriental regions 

 and found a number of valuable insects which were introduced with 

 good effect into the islands. 



When Koebele left California the authorities of that State did not 

 propose by any means to stop the work that he had begun for them. 

 They must have realized that he was a very unusual observer and a 

 remarkable collector and at the same time an entomologist of very 

 broad knowledge. These considerations, however, did not seem to 

 influence them in the appointment of his successor. Apparently they 

 thought that the work could be done with equal effect by any man of 

 sufficient energy and perseverance. Therefore they started George 

 Compere, a man of considerable orchard experience but who was a 

 virtual tyro in entomology, on various trips to various parts of the 

 world in search of parasites of various insects. I have not a word 

 to say against Compere's honesty of purpose, skill as a traveler, ex- 

 traordinary energy and great perseverance, but his lack of entomo- 

 logical knowledge led him into many mistakes and demonstrated that 

 work of this kind is extremely complicated and must be undertaken 

 with the greatest care and only by the most skilled men. It is only 

 by the barest chance that California escaped the introduction and 

 establishment of more than one injurious insect and more than one 

 secondary parasite through the wholesale sending of forms as car- 

 ried on by Compere for some years. The State built an insectary at 

 Sacramento, but for years no thoroughly competent entomologist was 

 placed in charge of it. Surely one very injurious hyperparasite was 

 liberated during this period, and probably more than one. Several 

 times he sent home forms as parasites which proved not to be para- 

 sites at all. Once he sent, with enthusiastic commendations, a para- 

 site which he said came from the black scale but which later proved to 

 be a parasite of a predatory Lepidopterous larva living under masses 

 of the scale. Later for a time he was employed jointly by the colony 

 of West Australia and the State of California, and it was some years 

 before his influence in such matters dwindled. He then became an 

 inspector at the port of San Francisco under the quarantine depart- 

 ment of the State Department of Agriculture and did excellent work 

 in that capacity. It is unfortunate that in his earlier work his energy 

 and devotion were not based upon a broad and accurate knowledge 

 of the creatures with which he was working. The extent and char- 



