February 4, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



163 



as special field agent to the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture from 1884 to 1892 and at other 

 various times in his career. It was during the 

 period mentioned above that he conducted the 

 very important investigations on the buffalo 

 gnats in Mississippi and Louisiana, resulting 

 in the discovery of the conditions necessary 

 for the maintenance of the larval existence of 

 these pests, thereby paving the way for the 

 institution of remedial measures eventually 

 resulting in immense savings of money in the 

 form of live stock, to say nothing of the as- 

 suagement of human misery. 



In 1888 Professor Webster was detailed by 

 the late Dr. C. V. Eiley, then chief of the U. 

 S. Division of Entomology, to visit Australia 

 for the purpose of making a report on the agri- 

 cultural features of the Melbourne Interna- 

 tional Exposition, the TJ. S. Exposition Com- 

 missioners making the preparation of this re- 

 report conditional upon their agreement to 

 assume the expense of the journey for both 

 Professor Webster and another entomologist, 

 Mr. Albert Koeble. The latter was charged 

 with the work of collecting the natural insect 

 enemies of the citrus fluted scale, which had 

 accidentally become introduced into Cali- 

 fornia, resulting in the discovery of the won- 

 derfully efficient Coccinellid beetle, Vedalia 

 cardinalis. Professor Webster visited portions 

 of Australia, Tasmania and l^ew Zealand, ac- 

 complishing his mission with eminent success 

 and returning to this country in 1889. 



During the years 1891 to 1902 he was ento- 

 mologist to the Ohio State Experiment Sta- 

 tion. This portion of his life was productive 

 of much important biological research work 

 and many valuable observations, not the least 

 of which were his discoveries of the relations 

 of ants to the existence of the corn root aphis, 

 and those which resulted in his memorable 

 paper on the Hessian fly, setting forth the now 

 well substantiated theory to the effect that 

 wheat should be planted subsequent to the 

 emergence and death of the great bulk of 

 adult flies in the autumn, resulting undoubt- 

 edly in the saving of vast sums of money to 

 the progressive farmers of the entire wheat 

 belt. During a portion of the years 1903-04 



Professor Webster was connected with the 

 Biological Survey of Illinois but his more im- 

 portant work was in the capacity of special 

 field agent to the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. The results of these investi- 

 gations were made known in several bulletins 

 of the old Division of Entomology. The most 

 important of these is perhaps the paper en- 

 titled " Some Insects Attacking the Stems of 

 Growing Wheat, Rye, Barley and Oats," re- 

 garded as a standard publication of its class 

 for many years. , 



At the end of 1904 Professor Webster came 

 to Washington to join the entomological serv- 

 ice of the Department of Agriculture which 

 had just been given bureau rank. The section 

 of Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations 

 was created in 1906 and Professor Webster 

 placed in charge, which position he held at the 

 time of his death. In this service the climax 

 of his usefulness was attained. He started 

 this work with a single assistant but under his 

 masterly guidance its organization developed 

 with giant strides until at the time of his 

 death a staff of more than fifty trained ento- 

 mologists were carrying out his plans and the 

 section received from congress for the fiscal 

 year 1915-16 an appropriation of $114,508. 

 Professor Webster's life was a most indus- 

 trious one. His hundreds of valuable papers 

 dealing almost exclusively witk the many 

 phases of economic entomology will endure so 

 long as the science of entomology itself. 



Although recognizing fully the importance 

 of taxonomic work in the field of biological 

 science Professor Webster apparently never 

 described a single genus or species, although 

 he discovered many during his decades of bio- 

 logical research work. Several genera in 

 hymenoptera and diptera have however been 

 named in his honor by various authors. He 

 evinced a tremendous interest in his work 

 and was able through sheer force of character 

 to transmit this quality to his entire staff of 

 investigators, each one of whom was made to 

 feel that his superior took a lively and in- 

 tensely human interest not only in his work 

 but also in him personally. The younger men 

 will remember their lamented friend and chief 



