Description: An Australian ladybug imported in the 1880s was a remarkable success against scale insects that had ravaged the orange groves of California. Subsequently, entomologists developed both theory and practice of biological control more fully in California than in any other state. In state government agencies, and later in the University of California, the biological control program grew, even as farmers and scientists elsewhere rushed headlong into chemical methods. Author Richard Sawyer shows that biological control thrived in California precisely because its practitioners had close ties to the citrus industry. They aimed to maximize profits by producing cosmetically perfect fruit. Entomologists, such as Harry S. Smith, a central figure of this study, saw themselves as pragmatists. Because of their position in applied science, biological control workers did not focus on making fundamental discoveries. Yet, as this study reveals, technological need led the Californians to "pure science" investigations in population dynamics, insect reproduction and development, and taxonomy. Sawyer supports the argument that technology often leads to science rather than always following science. Sawyer has mined a wealth of resources, including scientific publications; government documents; federal, state, university, and corporate archives; and interviews with key participants or their relatives. Scholars and students of agricultural history, history of science, environmental history, history of ecology and of biology, California history, and entomology will find common interests in this account of a minority approach to a major technological problem.

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