Albert Koebele

Albert Koebele (28 February 1853 - 28 December 1924) was an economic entomologist and a pioneer in the use of biological controls to manage insect pests.

Koebele was born in Waldkirch, Germany, in 1853. There are no details about his early life but in 1873 he immigrated to the United States, settled in New York, and became a naturalized citizen in 1880. By this time he was a member of the Brooklyn Entomological Society and had demonstrated great skill at preserving and mounting insects. Charles Valentine Riley, the noted federal entomologist, was impressed by these skills and offered Koebele a job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Koebele promptly accepted the offer and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1881.

Riley sent his new employee to the South in 1882 to study the cotton worm, the larva of a moth (Alabama argillacea) that originated in South America but had become a serious pest for cotton growers in the United States. The following year Koebele traveled to Brazil where he studied cotton pests and collected a large number of insect specimens.

At his request, Koebele was transferred in 1885 to Alameda, California where he studied local insect pests and evaluated the effectiveness of various insecticides. At this time the California citrus industry was facing an economic crisis brought about by the cottony cushion scale (Icerya purchasi), an invasive insect that had established itself in California orchards several years earlier. Koebele was soon focused on this pest, working alongside another federal entomologist, Daniel William Coquillett, to find a remedy. Insecticides had little effect and growers resorted to pulling up infested trees and burning them.

Back in Washington, Riley had noted the curious fact that citrus trees in Australia were largely unaffected by the cottony cushion scale even though the insect was native to the region. He suspected that natural predators of the scale insects held them in check. In 1888 Riley sent Koebele to Australia to investigate. There he found two likely predators of the scale—a parasitic fly (Cryptochaetum iceryae) and the vedalia beetle (Rodolia cardinalis). Koebele captured hundreds of these insects and shipped them back to Coquillett in California for further evaluation.

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