406 ENTOMOLOGY 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture. The first ento- 

 mological expert appointed under the general government was 

 Townend Glover, in 1854. He issued a large number of 

 reports (1863-1877), which "are storehouses of interesting 

 and important facts which are too little used by the working 

 entomologists of to-day," as Howard says. Glover prepared, 

 moreover, a most elaborate series of illustrations of North 

 American insects, at an enormous expense of labor, out of all 

 proportion, however, to the practical value of his undertaking. 



Glover was succeeded in 1878 by Riley, whose achievements 

 have aroused international admiration. He resigned in a year, 

 after writing a report, and was succeeded by Prof. Comstock, 

 who held office for two years, during which he wrote two 

 important volumes (published respectively in 1880 and 1881) 

 dealing especially with cotton, orange and scale insects. His 

 work on scale insects laid the foundation for all our subsequent 

 investigation of the subject. 



Riley, assuming the office of government entomologist, pub- 

 lished up to 1894, " 12 annual reports, 31 bulletins, 2 special 

 reports, 6 volumes of the periodical bulletin Insect Life, and 

 a large number of circulars of information." During his 

 vigorous and enterprising administration economic entomology 

 took an immense step in advance. The life histories of injuri- 

 ous insects were studied with extreme care and many valuable 

 improvements in insecticides and insecticide machinery were 

 made. . One of the notable successes of Dr. Riley and his co- 

 workers, which has attracted an exceptional amount of public 

 attention, was the practical extermination of the fluted scale 

 (Icerya purchasi) , which threatened to put an end to the cul- 

 tivation of citrus trees in California. This disaster was 

 averted by the importation from Australia, in 1888, of a native 

 enemy of the scale, namely, the lady-bird beetle Noviits 

 (Vedalia] cardinalis, which, in less than eighteen months after 

 its introduction into California, subjugated the noxious scale 

 insect. The United States has since sent Novius to South 

 Africa, Egypt and Portugal with similar beneficial results. 



