Riley, Charles Valentine

Related Category: Zoology: Biographies

1843–95, American entomologist, b. England. He emigrated to the United States in 1860 and served as state entomologist (1868–77) of Missouri and as entomologist (1878–79, 1881–94) in the Dept. of Agriculture. Riley has been called the father of modern economic entomology. His observations and suggestions helped control the destructive cottony cushion scale in California (by introducing parasites from Australia) and virtually saved the wine industry of France from the grape phylloxera. He founded the periodical Insect Life and served as editor from 1889 to 1894.