Charles Valentine Riley

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Charles Valentine Riley

Charles Valentine Riley (born September 19, 1843 in Chelsea , London , † September 14, 1895 , Washington, DC ) was an American entomologist and is considered the father of biological pest control .

In 1860, Riley left England for America, and in 1863 began publishing entomological records in Chicago's Prairie Farmer , a leading agricultural journal. A little later he became an editor, in addition to his reports he also made numerous drawings.

He died on September 14, 1895 in a bicycle accident. He fractured his skull, did not regain consciousness, and died the same day. He left behind his wife, five daughters and one son.

youth

Charles Valentine Riley was born on September 19, 1843 in Chelsea, London, to the illegitimate son of Charles Edmund Fewtrell Wylde and Marie Cannon. The name Riley is a parenting misleading. When he was 13, his parents sent him to school, first in Dieppe, France, and then, when he was 15, in Bonn, Germany. The focus of the training was on art and natural history; Charles Riley was particularly interested in insects. In 1860 Riley left Europe and moved to Kankakee County, Illinois to the George Edwards family, friends of his own family.

Professional career

1868 Riley State entomologist was in Missouri and founded in September 1868 along with Benjamin Then Walsh magazine The American Entomologist . After Walsh died the following year, he continued to run the paper alone.

Between 1873 and 1877, locusts caused considerable damage in many western states. He convinced the government to convene the United States Entomological Commission and in 1876 became chairman of its Locust Commission and therefore moved to Washington, DC

In 1882 he donated parts of his insect collection to the US National Museum , now the Smithsonian Institution , thereby laying the foundation stone. In 1885 he became the first curator for insects at the museum and then gave the museum his entire collection consisting of 115,000 prepared animals of 20,000 species, 2,800 bottles and 3,000 drawers with preparations.

In 1878 he became an entomologist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), his two assistants were Theodore Pergande (1840-1916) and Leland Ossian Howard (1857-1950). Riley resigned in 1879 because of differences with his manager, but returned to the job in 1881 and stayed until 1894.

research

In 1864 he began to build a network of regular correspondence with farmers in the Midwest who were plagued by the rocky mountain hedge ( Melanoplus spretus ), a migratory locust. He published his observations and the information from the letters together with drawings, thus sparking a keen interest in the life cycle of insects in the United States and Canada.

Together with Walsh, he published the first evidence of the mass migration of monarch butterflies in North America in 1868 , thus laying the foundation for research into the butterfly . In 1871 he described and illustrated the way of life and mimicry of the monarch butterfly and Limenitis archippus . Charles Darwin wrote to him: "I am struck with admiration at your powers of observation .... The discussion on mimetic insects seems to me particularly good and original" (German: "I am full of admiration for your powers of observation ... The discussion imitative insects seems to me to be particularly good and original ”).

In 1876 he discovered that the small, inconspicuous yuccamot Tegeticula yuccasella , which he described in 1872, pollinated yucca species , an example of coevolution that particularly interested Darwin. In 1892 he published his research results and was able to explain many of the questions at that time using Darwin's theory of evolution .

He was one of the first to recognize that the American grape Vitis labrusca was resistant to phylloxera . He worked intensively with George Hussman (1827-1903), a professor of agriculture at the University of Missouri in Columbia and the winemakers and vine growers Isidor Bush (1822-1888) from St. Louis and Hermann Jaeger from Neosho (Missouri). The winemakers had tried to cross with regional wild vines to breed hybrid vines that were resistant to phylloxera. These vines were sent to France, where the viticulture scientist Jules Émile Planchon from the University of Montpellier, who was in close scientific exchange with Riley, used them as a base for the French grape varieties and thus obtained phylloxera-resistant plants, which ultimately saved European viticulture could. For this merit Riley received the French Great Gold Medal and in 1884 he was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honor .

The California citrus industry was on the verge of ruin due to the proliferation of the imported Australian wool scale louse in the late 1880s. The plague was so great that the farmers dug up the lice-covered citrus trees and burned them. In the winter of 1888, Riley introduced the Australian ladybug Rodolia cardinalis to control it, and by the following autumn, lice were under control wherever the beetles were released. This was the first success of biological pest control.

Riley also studied the life cycles of the so-called periodical cicadas of the genus Magicicada, with their life cycles lasting 13 or 17 years.

Foundation, endowment

After the death of his youngest daughter in 1978, a foundation was established to help establish the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation . Established in 1985, this foundation aims to promote the protection and sensible use of natural resources and to convey the nature and importance of modern agriculture to the citizens of the United States.

Fonts

  • Yuccamot:
    • New Species of Prodoxidae . In: Proceedings of the Entomological Society . Volume II, No. 3. Washington December 15, 1892, pp. 312-319.
    • Yucca Insects and Yucca Pollination Notes . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . Volume VIII, June 20, 1893, pp. 41-54, plate IX.
    • Notes on Pronuba and Yucca Pollinations . In: Proceedings of the Washington Entomological Society . Volume 1, No. 3, 1889, pp. 1-5.
  • Parasitic flies:
    • The Ox Bot in the United States: Habits and Natural History of Hypoderma lineata . In: Insect Life . Volume IV, Nos. 9 and 10, June 1892.
    • On insects affecting the agave . In: Proceedings of the Entomological Society . June 15, 1892, with two articles by Riley:
      • A probable Microgaster parasite of Eleodes in the imago stage
      • Our American ox warbler ( Hypoderma lineatum ) (German: Kleine Rinderdasselfliege )
  • Grasshoppers:
    • The Rocky Mountain Locust. Further Facts About the Natural Enemies of Locusts . In: Second Report of the United States Entomological Commission . 1880, pp. 259-271.
    • The Locust Plague in the United States: Being more particularly a treatise on the Rocky Mountain Locust or so-called grasshopper, as it occurs east of the Rocky Mountains, with practical recommendations for its destruction . Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago 1877.
    • The Rocky Mountain Locust. Remedies and Devices for its Destruction . In: The First Report of the United States Entomological Commission . US Department of Interior, 1878, pp. 351-420.
    • Destruction of the Young or Unfledged Locusts . In: Bulletin of the United States Entomological Commission . No. 1. US Department of Interior, June 1877.
  • Aphids:
    • Notes on the Aphididae of the United States. With descriptions of species occurring west of the Mississippi . In: Bulletin of the Survey . Volume 5, No. 4. Riley and J. Monell, January 22, 1879, panels I-II.
  • Hessen fly ( Mayetiola destructor )
    • The Hessian Fly to Imported Insect . In: Canadian Entomologist . Volume IXX, 1888, p 121, seven plates.
  • Colorado potato beetle
    • Potato Pest . In: An illustrated account of the Colorado Potato-beetle and the other insect foes of the potato in North America with suggestions for their repression and methods for their destruction . 1876.

literature

  • Lincoln P. Brower : Understanding and Misunderstanding the Migration of the Monarch Butterfly (Nymphalidae) in North America 1857-1995 . In: Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society . Vol. 49, no. 4 , 1995, p. 304–385 (English, online [PDF; 4.7 MB ; accessed on March 27, 2008]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edward H. Smith and Janet R. Smith: Charles Valentine Riley - The Making of the Man and His Achievements . In: AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST . Winter 1996.
  2. ^ Marylee Ramsay, John Richard Schrock: The Yucca Plant and the Yucca Moth. (PDF; 7.2 MB) In: The Kansas School Naturalist. June 1995, accessed March 27, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Joachim von Braun: Agriculture for Sustainable Economic Development: A Global R&D Initiative to Avoid a Deep and Complex Crisis. (PDF; 241 kB) International Food Policy Research Institute, February 28, 2008, accessed on June 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Rodolia cardinalis. In: Biological Control: A Guide to Natural Enemies in North America. Cornell University, accessed March 31, 2008 .
  5. ^ Charles Valentine Riley Collection - Series I. Correspondence, 1871-1894. (PDF; 199 kB) United States Department of Agriculture, accessed March 31, 2008 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Riley, Charles Valentine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riley, CV
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Chelsea , London , UK
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1895
Place of death Washington, DC , United States