| |
| David
Greathead 1931–2006
a Life in Biological Control
|
|
The
following article appeared in Biocontrol News and Information 28(1),
1N–28N pestscience.com http://www.pestscience.com/news.asp
Rebecca
Murphy & Matthew J. W. Cock, CABI.
the authors have kindly given me permission to include the article on my
website |
|
|
The
founding editor of BNI, David
Greathead, who died on 13 October
2006 at the age of 74, was an influential figure in biological control and
also a world authority on Bombyliidae (bee flies). His career reflected
many of the changes and developments in biological control over this
period, which is hardly surprising since he was central to many of them. A
naturally thoughtful demeanour coupled with an encyclopaedic knowledge of
biological control endowed him with wisdom and foresight. His legacy
includes successful and in some cases groundbreaking biological control
initiatives, extensive publications in biological control and taxonomy,
contributions to an international regulatory framework for
biological |
| control,
and last but by no means least the many scientists whose early careers he
fostered and some of whom are now well known names themselves. His
achievements were a direct result of his rare combination of broad
perspective and attention to detail. As fellow-bombyliid expert Neal
Evenhuis (
Bishop Museum
,
Hawaii
) says: “Everything was thoughtfully prepared and checked and rechecked
before he would be satisfied,” but as Sean Murphy (a long-serving CABI
scientist) says, “David always managed to see the bigger picture.” He
inspired loyalty and affection in his staff, was excellent company and
could spin a great story – his experiences gave him plenty of material
to work with. |
| David
was born on 12 December 1931 in
London
,
UK
, into a family with South African roots: his great great-grandfather led
one of the first parties to be settled by the British Government in the
Eastern Cape
in 1820, and his great-grandfather was a member of the first South African
colonial parliament in the late 1850s. David’s childhood was divided
between the
UK
and
South Africa
, but he elected to stay in the
UK
for his university education when his family returned permanently to
South Africa
. He graduated from the
University
of
London
’s Imperial College of Science and Technology (now Imperial College
London) with a BSc in Zoology in June 1953, and was later awarded a PhD
and a DSc. |
| In
1953 he was recruited by Dr (later Sir) Boris Uvarov to work at the Desert
Locust Survey (DLS) and, in the words of Cliff Ashall (Officer-in-Charge
of one of DLS's field research units) was “introduced to a varied and
resourceful set of characters – men of a different breed.” While
working at the All-Russian Plant Protection Institute in
St Petersburg
, Uvarov had famously discovered that solitary and gregarious desert
locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) were different phases of the same
species. Having left post-revolutionary
Russia
, he was recruited in 1920 to the staff of the Imperial Bureau of
Entomology in
London
andwas subsequently directly involved in establishing the Anti-Locust
Research Centre (ALRC). Uvarov, according to Elspeth Huxley in No Easy
Way (ca. 1957), not only possessed single-minded drive and deep
knowledge of locusts but, crucially, saw that countries would have to work
together to solve the locust problem, and strove for this to happen. Over
the next 10 years, he and another Russian émigré scientist, Zena Waloff,
comprised the entire headquarters staff of the Commonwealth anti-locust
effort (and ran this operation at a total cost of slightly over
UK
£7900). During WWII he advised the highly successful, largely
military-based Middle Eastern Anti-Locust Unit that implemented desert
locust campaigns in collaboration with the civilian East African
Anti-Locust Directorate to protect vital food crops in eastern
Africa
. Post-war, Desert Locust Survey (DLS) and Desert Locust Control (DLC)
took over this role. DLS, which David joined, is described by Cliff Ashall
as “one of the more remarkable organisations ever to have operated in
East Africa and the
Middle East
.” |
| Cliff
tells how Uvarov chose David “to spearhead the research on locust
natural enemies as part of the multi-disciplinary approach to a solution
of the locust problem”, and this included work contributing to his PhD.
He subsequently published a review of the natural enemies of Acridoidea1
(something he came back to much later in his career) while interest
fostered by studies on bombyliid predators on egg pods of the desert
locust developed into long-term involvement in biosystematic research on
this group. He also studied
the effects of biotic factors on desert locust populations and looked at
numerical changes in desert locust populations; a paper he wrote with Bill
Stower2 remains one of the few published numerical population
studies, and as such is proving important for locust control today. |
| For
the next 8 years David worked at DLS in what Cliff refers to as “that
great adventure which was locust research and control.” During this time
he was involved in field work and research in
Ethiopia
,
Somalia
,
Kenya
and what was then the Aden Protectorate (now part of
Yemen
). It was not a life for the faint hearted. David described the laborious
work on choice of oviposition sites by locust swarms, studies he and Bill
undertook with George Popov (another notable Russian émigré locust
scientist, and traveller) in Somalia in 1953, continuing in Turkana in
northern Kenya in 1954: “We used to delimit groups of egg-pods, scrape
the surface and mark them all with matchsticks and then carefully excavate
them and plot their position and condition on graph paper.” In later
years, he expressed regret that the young scientists then involved in
locust work had at best a few weeks at a time in the field. From tales he
recounted, it is not hard to see why. He and George made a systematic
survey of the locust recession areas, beginning with a journey in
January–February 1954 from
Cape
Guardafui
, the apex of the Horn of Africa, along the Gulf of Aden coast into
Eritrea
. The journey was mostly not
on tracks and probably not repeated since. They reached
Lake
Assal
, in what was then French Somaliland (now
Djibouti
). This, the lowest point in
Africa
at 155 metres below sea level and the most saline body of water in the
world, is set in a glistening white salt flat which they had to cross.
They found they had to keep up a high speed because the salt crust, below
which laythick sludge, began to break up if they slowed down.
Worse was to follow. Near the
port
of
Assab
in
Eritrea
(at the time federated with
Ethiopia
) and close to the French Somaliland border they stopped to use the radio
thinking they were out of sight. But when they set off again they were
surrounded by the Ethiopian garrison and put under house arrest until
their bona fides could be confirmed from
Addis Ababa
; the soldiers thought they were the French army come to seize Assab.
Moreover, they learnt afterwards, had the soldiers not been holding their
topees on their heads with one hand as they came towards them at the
double, someone might have been shot, for the soldiers had been told to
shoot. Little surprise, then, that David later showed scant regard for, by
comparison, minor privations experienced by his staff – and incredulity
at the luxuries some biocontrol scientists regarded as essential in the
field. |
| Cliff
Ashall remembers David as a “pleasant, cooperative and industrious
colleague of great integrity.” Nevertheless the locust days gave rise to
one of the enduring legends about him, as Cliff recounts. David and Jerry
Roffey, a fellow
Imperial
College
graduate, joined DLS at the same time and “spent some time together in
Somaliland and
Eritrea
. There was an Ethiopian locust officer with them who played his radio
very loudly in the mornings, something that David did not agree with –
and in spite of repeated pleas to turn down the volume it continued until
David picked up a 303 rifle and put a bullet through the offending
radio.” The story became embellished with time and, although apparently
exasperated by this, David was known to put it to good use. In the 1980s,
while Assistant Director of CIBC (the Commonwealth Institute of Biological
Control; IIBC, the International Institute of Biological Control, as it
became in September 1985), he was a popular visitor to Kenya and staff
would vie with each other to put him up (something that afforded him wry
amusement; as he once put it, he had to be careful to share himself
around, and was never permitted the luxury of a hotel). These were the
early days of personal computers and the dot matrix printer ruled the
roost, or in this case the dining room. Eager to clear paperwork before
setting off for a day in the field with David, Richard Markham (now
Programme Director, Commodities for Livelihoods, Bioversity International)
was printing out the results of his late-night labours at breakfast-time.
This did nothing to allay David’s by-then renowned early-morning
grouchiness, and it took but a single grumble about the noise and mess as
the paper spewed out into the marmalade for the plug to be quickly pulled
and the peace of a Kenya Highlands morning to be restored. |
| David
married Annette in 1958. A graduate of the
University
of
St Andrews
in
Scotland
, Annette was recruited by ALRC in
London
and then temporarily seconded as a librarian to the International Red
Locust Control Service in what was then Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia (now
Mbale
,
Zambia
). After their marriage she was to become David’s professional colleague
too, and her talents were an asset to CABI, both in
Uganda
where she worked with David on projects, and when they returned to the
UK
where she earned respect for her meticulous editing –notably for the Bulletin
of Entomological Research. |
| David
married Annette in 1958. A graduate of the
University
of
St Andrews
in
Scotland
, Annette was recruited by ALRC in
London
and then temporarily seconded as a librarian to the International Red
Locust Control Service in what was then Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia (now
Mbale
,
Zambia
). After their marriage she was to become David’s professional colleague
too, and her talents were an asset to CABI, both in
Uganda
where she worked with David on projects, and when they returned to the
UK
where she earned respect for her meticulous editing –notably for the Bulletin
of Entomological Research. |
| David
joined the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux (CAB, now CABI) in 1962 to
set up their first African base with the founding of the CIBC East African
Station at Kawanda Research Station in
Uganda
, some eight miles west of
Kampala
. As such, James Ogwang (former head of the Biological Control Unit,
National Agricultural Research Organization,
Uganda
) describes him as “the grandfather of biocontrol in
Uganda
.” |
| The
purpose of establishing CIBC stations in
Africa
was, David later wrote in the opening chapter of Biological control in
IPM systems in Africa3, to assist African countries
and to find natural enemies for export to other countries. This, as he
outlined in the chapter, was during the aftermath of the era when
synthetic pesticides had led many countries to abandon biological control,
while remaining practitioners often tried to show that biological control
was cheaper and permanent. The ease of shipment that air travel afforded
had tempted many to economize on detailed ecological studies, and instead
ship large numbers of species for release to see which would establish;
lessons learnt from an earlier era were forgotten, inappropriate species
were introduced, the success rate fell, and biological control came to be
seen as something unlikely to succeed and to be used only as a last
resort. Against this background, David’s emphasis on science-based
biological control was invaluable. |
| Sean
Murphy notes how: “From the start it was clear that David saw the need
for creating centres of excellence – across the globe – to allow the
science to flourish and for it to make a contribution to development”,
and this was long before ‘development’ became the buzz word it is
today. Gordon Tiley (then Pasture Agronomist at Kawanda, now at the
Scottish
Agricultural
College
), describes how David “developed the East African station from
practically nothing to a compact unit. A number of young expatriate and
Ugandan scientists worked with and were trained by David, who placed
particular emphasis on this particular aspect of the Unit’s work.”
Encouragement of young scientists was to become one of David’s
hallmarks. Gordon also says: “CIBC work frequently took David away on
safari to all parts of
East Africa
in the Unit’s Land Rover. Being a small satellite, the Unit was
constrained by limited laboratory and library facilities. Conditions for
working were frequently technically and administratively challenging,
though there was an excellent and comprehensive insect collection.
However, with a quiet and organized approach, David sought to promote high
standards of scientific professionalism.” David’s capacity to do
excellent work under difficult circumstances could make him a hard act to
follow. Ian Robertson (a lifelong friend from locust days) was thinking of
David’s work in Uganda when, as Officer in-Charge, CIBC Kenya Station in
the mid 1980s, he observed to junior colleagues that it was no point
complaining to David about what he was expecting of them, because he had
done far better work under far worse conditions and with far fewer
resources. This tenacity, which David was to exhibit again and again
during his career, was already matched by other traits Gordon Tiley
describes that were to become familiar, and remain so, even as Director of
IIBC: “He was approachable by staff at all levels and always willing to
discuss a problem or to offer level headed advice, in characteristic
measured tones and generally while lighting up or extinguishing his
pipe!” Donald McNutt’s recollections from when he was posted to
Kawanda as an Entomologist in 1967 highlight David’s open-mindedness:
“My main work was testing the effectiveness of insecticides for pest
control and the use of spraying machinery as opposed to biological methods
but despite this David was always available to discuss problems with me.
In particular he gave useful advice for a booklet I was writing on Insect
collecting in the tropics.” He adds: “He was a realistic person
who didn’t mind asking me to treat his house against possible cockroach
breeding while he and his family went on vacation to
South Africa
.” |
| Professor
Tecwyn Jones (Director, East African Agriculture and Forestry Research
Organization [EAAFRO]; later Director, Commonwealth Instituteof Entomology
[CIE]) says that David “was rightly widely commended for the success of
CIBC’s biocontrol projects in
East Africa
.” This owed much to his wide-ranging abilities. One of the first
projects he tackled concerned the Antestiopsis spp. complex, the
main pests of Arabica coffee, which demonstrated how David went straight
to the root of a problem and had the scientific skill to solve it; in this
case, the identity of the pest was unclear. Donald McNutt, at the time
working on Arabica coffee pests on Mt Elgon as Entomologist at Mbale,
describes David as “a fine entomologist” and was “very impressed by
the way he sorted out the Antestiopsis spp. complex”; David
published a series of papers on this. Subsequent work on the sugarcane
scale (Aulacaspis spp.) led to the establishment of a coccinellid
introduced from
Uganda
to
Mauritius
but not control of the pest. However,
another coccinellid, Rhyzobius lophanthae (syn. Lindorus
lophanthae) introduced from
Mauritius
to northern
Tanzania
was outstandingly successful in the continuous cropping system there and
brought the pest under control within 18 months of being released. A
(rare) well-funded project on cereal stemborers brought a second
expatriate entomologist to the Station from about 1965 (Ed Milner,
followed by Ikram Mohyuddin, then David Girling to 1973). David also
worked on lantana biological control – a weed that continues to
frustrate biocontrol scientists to this day. Insect agents (Teleonemia
scrupulosa) achieved severe defoliation and dieback, but, David
Girling says, “David came to realize that once the insects had knocked
it down it just grew again if the land wasn’t cleared and used – early
IPM?” |
| Professor
Fred Legner from the
University
of
California
at
Riverside
(where he is now Emeritus Professor) spent time searching for natural
enemies of the common housefly in
Kenya
and
Uganda
in 1966–67, under a joint project he and David were conducting for the
US National Institutes of Health. This proved a significant partnership
for
Mauritius
, where Stomoxys spp. stableflies were a severe constraint to dairy
farming and cattle were kept in straw huts to protect them. First attempts
to control flies by releasing
New World
parasitoids from dungfeeding flies had been unsuccessful in humid inland
areas. Subsequently it was discovered the parasitoids controlled
dung-breeding S. calcitrans, but not S. nigra which bred in
the plentiful rotting vegetation (notably sugarcane trash) of the humid
zone. Fred explains: “After I left, David supervised a study on breeding
sites in
Uganda
. We came up with Tachinaephagus stomoxicida out of the work.”
Between 1972 and 1975, sampling was carried out on banana trash and cut
elephant grass. Pupae were shipped to
Mauritius
for study, and it became apparent that the natural enemy complex was
markedly different from that in dung pits. Tachinaephagus stomoxicida was
released and rapidly established in
Mauritius
, where it provided substantial control of S. nigra for most of the
year – a case of careful ecological study reaping benefits. |
| In
1971 David published A review of biological control in the Ethiopian
Region4, the fifth in CAB’s Technical Communications
series, designed to review the development of biological control in the
British Commonwealth
. Tecwyn Jones pays tribute to David’s wider influence in East Africa:
“As head of the CIBC East African Station, David, like all other
entomologists in the region, was required to report annually on his work
and plans for future research to the East African Specialist Committee for
Agriculture and Entomology of the East African High Commission (EHC) –
later the East African Community (EAC). I, as entomologist at EAAFRO,
chaired that Committee (and submitted its findings and recommendations for
approval to the EHC) and perhaps better than most came to know David’s
value and standing on the committee. |
| “Throughout
his time in
East Africa
, David was a major contributor to the deliberations of the Specialist
Committee and was held in the highest esteem by all his fellow members.
Thorough planning, meticulous attention to detail, and immaculate
execution of every stage of his work, were the hallmarks of David’s own
research, and of research projects under his authority. He also enjoyed
the highest respect of his peers for his substantial and invaluable
contribution to the delineation and work of the EA Plant Import and Export
Committee and hence to the EA Plant Quarantine Service with its excellent
record.” |
| If
what has gone before suggests David was an overwhelmingly serious
character, this was not the case. Although
he was dedicated to his profession and critical of what he considered poor
scientific standards, Tecwyn Jones is keen to stress that there was
another side to him: “David will long be remembered by his professional
colleagues for his unique contribution to pest-management in East Africa
– but no less so by all friends and acquaintances who knew him well for
his personal attributes. He was a modest, unassuming, ever-helpful and
kind person, whose advice and wise counsel was greatly valued by all. He
was by nature rather shy and retiring but his studious thoughtful
demeanour belied his keen sense of humour and a quick and healthy
appreciation of the ridiculous – a combination which assured his welcome
in professional and social gatherings of diverse composition and
character.” |
| Gordon
Tiley saw similar qualities: “He was a close family man, with wife
Annette and children Andrew, Sarah and Emma, plus their affectionate dog,
Sheba
. They were all popular and
active members of the Station community and did much to contribute to its
social life. David himself possessed a somewhat dry reserved sense of
humour but he was always congenial company. A valuable steadying influence
in times of argument or the inevitable personality conflicts among the
more boisterous elements in a compact community.” Charles Dewhurst, then
working under the late Eric S. Brown with African armyworm (Spodoptera
exempta), remembers visits to Kawanda, where they had one of their
light traps, for the typical hospitality with which they were invited for
supper by David and Annette. He also recalls David’s interest in
bombyliids, adding: “David always requested us to bring any specimens of
Bombyliidae that we might come across, and that has to be my main memory,
as everywhere I have visited in the world, seeing and collecting
bombyliids and knowing that David was always interested.” Hospitality is
a thread that runs through many people’s memories of David and Annette.
When they eventually returned to the
UK
and David was based at
Imperial
College
at
Silwood
Park
, they regularly entertained CIBC/IIBC staff and ‘Silwood’ students,
and are particularly remembered for their hospitality to overseas students
stranded in the
UK
at Christmas-time. |
| David
and Annette remained in
Uganda
under increasingly difficult political circumstances under the regime of
Idi Amin until 1973. By then permission to leave the country even
temporarily was difficult to obtain, but David managed to extract a letter
personally signed by the Minister of Internal Affairs allowing him to
leave, with Annette and Emma, to conduct annual field work in neighbouring
Kenya
(where their two older children were at school). With the CIBC Station
Landrover filled with laboratory equipment, and what possessions they
could fit in once this was all stowed, they set off, arriving at the
border after dark. It was, as David recounted in later years, a
particularly tense moment when he handed over the letter. They watched the
soldier read it, slowly. They were not sure what to expect next – but it
was certainly not what happened. The soldier, clearly awed by the
signature on the bottom, asked reverentially whether he could keep it.
Bemused, David cordially replied that of course he could. And so they were
waved through. But their troubles were not yet over. On reaching
Nairobi
, the Landrover was broken into and the microscopes stolen; CABI folklore
has it that David was reprimanded for his carelessness. |
| When
a new CIBC East African Station was subsequently established at the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) at Muguga, the Landrover found a
permanent home and the staff cherished it for many years, putting up with
its increasingly cranky habits with varying degrees of forbearance until a
new breed of four-wheel drive vehicles, of less character but also less
likely to shed windscreen wipers in heavy rain, superseded it.
Even so it was not forgotten, and at David’s retirement dinner at
Silwood
Park
in 1991, Garry Hill, then Director of the IIBC Kenya Station, presented
him with the Landrover’s wing mirror as a memento. |
| From
East Africa, David moved back to the
UK
, where he was based until his retirement. One of the first tasks he took
on, with David Girling and colleagues at the CIBC European Station at Delémont
in
Switzerland
, was editing a companion to his review of African biological control: A
review of biological control in western and southern Europe5
was published in 1976. At first he had an office in the CIE
headquarters at 56 Queen’s Gate, London, and later he moved to the old
headquarters of CAB at Farnham Royal where he was, as Richard Hill (now
with Hill & Associates, New Zealand, and on the BNI Editorial
Board) recalls, “the sole CIBC staff member in the UK at that time and I
would visit him at Farnham Royal to seek advice. The move to Silwood and
the growing of CIBC
UK
soon followed, all driven by David.” During this period, David Girling
adds, David continued with project work; for example surveying in
Kenya
and
Ethiopia
for parasitoids of olive pests for Mediterranean countries. |
| David,
with David Girling’s assistance on the ground, was also involved with
plans for the new CIBC East African Station in
Kenya
. The agreement for this was signed in January 1981 and it began business
in facilities provided by KARI at Muguga, near
Nairobi
. However, the status of CIBC in the UK was far from assured at this time,
but David, as David Girling puts it, “characteristically turned crisis
into opportunity, persuading CAB that CIBC needed an information officer
(me), a journal to promote biological control (BNI, later handing
over the editorship to me), as well as an Assistant Director (David) and a
new headquarters (Silwood).” Silwood Park formed part of Imperial
College’s Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology (now Biology),
and was home to world-renowned ecological research, and to one of the few
MSc courses in Applied Entomology in the UK – a magnet for overseas
students. David moved to Silwood in June 1981.
David Girling, who retired from CABI and as Editor of BNI in
1997 adds, “much of what you see today stems from that time.”
David’s ability to think ahead of his time became familiar to a
succession of scientific colleagues over the course of his career. What
was less well known was that he came from a family of innovators (and he
himself put a good deal of effort into tracing and writing up the family
history6). To cite but one, David’s great-uncle, James Henry
Greathead (1844–1896), is known as the ‘Father of the Tube’ and a
statue of him stands outside Bank underground station in London; his
improved design for a mechanical shield “made tunnelling deeper, cheaper
and safer for the army of workers building the London Underground”7. |
| At
first housed in a few rooms in the Victorian manor house that was the
centre of Imperial College at Silwood Park – in Richard Hill’s words
– “ensconced in the gallery rooms ‘through the looking glass’ as I
always thought of them”, David oversaw the planning and construction of
a new IIBC headquarters building in the developing science park, which was
opened by Professor M. S. Swaminathan in 1989.
David became Director of IIBC in 1989, on the retirement of Fred
Bennett, and continued to develop the UK Centre with strong links to
Imperial
College
. His belief, as Sean Murphy puts it, “that good science was the way
forward” lay behind the recruitment of Jeff Waage from
Imperial
College
as Chief Research Officer (he became Director after David’s retirement).
David supported Jeff in the establishment of the Leverhulme
Fellowship scheme, a joint
CABI–Imperial
College
initiative that was to produce useful research with applications to
biological control. He also took advantage of the proximity to
Imperial
College
to apply his inclusive approach to integration of biological and
non-biological control technologies –IPM in short – by developing
links with the experts in pesticide application in tropical countries at
the college’s International Pesticide Application Research Centre (IPARC).
Both these were to later prove his wisdom in engaging widely with other
disciplines. |
| David’s
outward-looking approach is endorsed by many people he worked with over
his career. Peter Kenmore (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, FAO) describes him as: “A real pioneer, and a stalwart for
biocontrol, who encouraged diverse approaches so long as they had been
fieldtested. FAO's first field
biocontrol training course in rice, hosted by CIBC in India 25 years ago
[in 1982], was made possible because David agreed to our nearly exclusive
emphasis on conservation-oriented, rather than ‘classical’, biocontrol.”
Harry Evans, a plant pathologist recruited by David from CIBC’ssibling
institute, the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, CMI (later the
International Mycological Institute, IMI), says, “David had the vision
to realise that CIBC needed a more holistic approach to biological
control, and, despite serious internal reservations, he managed to
persuade CABI to invest in a pathology capability. Subsequently, a
pathologist was appointed in 1984 to develop projects against both
invasive weeds and arthropod pests. More
investments followed as specialist facilities were included in the plans
for the new building and greenhouse infrastructure in order to handle both
low- and high-risk pathogens. This also gave CIBC the opportunity to
further enhance its role as a third country quarantine centre. Thanks to
David’s legacy, high-profile pathology projects could be undertaken;
including the highly successful one against the desert locust – a
subject, of course, close to his heart.” The IIBC UK Centre grew to have
a substantial pathology staff who also became involved in classical
biological control of weeds, including the successful control of
rubbervine (Cryptostegia grandiflora) in northern
Australia
by a rust fungus; David had first looked for natural enemies of this plant
on the
Kenya
coast in 1973. |
| The
inclusion of quarantine facilities at the
Silwood
Park
site also meant that staff and students based at a
UK
university were able to study tropical pests.
David took advantage of the stability of a managerial role and
association with
Imperial
College
to get involved in supervision of research students in the 1980s,
including PhD students Aristóbulo LópezÁvila from
Colombia
working on parasitoids of Bemisia tabaci and ‘Ravi’
Raveendranath from
Sri Lanka
working on Telenomus spp. egg parasitoids of Spodoptera spp. |
| David’s
easy engagement with people created a network of international linkages
that CABI benefits from to this day. Dr S. P. Singh (formerly Director,
Project Directorate of Biological Control [PDBC],
Bangalore
,
India
) describes David’s role in the evolution of CABI’s links with
India
. From when he was a post-graduate student in
Russia
, S. P. Singh had harboured a desire to meet the “stalwarts of
biological control from CIBC.” His opportunity came in 1984 when,
working in Bangalore as a Project Coordinator of the All India Coordinated
Research Project on Biological of Crop Pests and Weeds, “I got the news
that Dr David Greathead is visiting” and of their meeting he says,
“when I met Dr Greathead, then Assistant Director, CIBC, I eagerly
explained the activities and the progress of work and also put forth the
expansion plan of the project to co-ordinate research, transfer viable
technology on biological control of important crop pests and weeds and to
serve as a nodal agency for introduction, exchange and conservation of
biological control agents at national level. He listened carefully and
offered several suggestions, and told me that such a type of expansion
requires a lot of public funding.” Of this first meeting, S. P. Singh
sums David up as “a very pleasant, modest, unassuming and helpful person
with depth of knowledge and breadth of vision.” Although S. P. Singh was
to meet David only once more, they continued to correspond, and he drew on
David’s published material – notably, he comments, the BIOCAT
database. In the years that followed, “collaboration and interactions
with CABI improved” and continued to flourish after the formation in
1993 of PDBC with its 16 co-ordinating centres and laboratories.
The association has led to joint CABI–ICAR workshops and many
other meetings and seminars involving CABI staff – indeed some have
become regular visitors and collaborators. Thus, S. P. Singh concludes,
“The seeds of collaboration sown by Dr Greathead seem to have germinated
and flourished.” |
| Sean
Murphy recognizes the importance of David’s influence and impact at a
personal level: “I met with David in the early 1980s (when I was a
student in the
UK
) when he was already a leading light in biological control. I (and
others) quickly learnt that this was a man who had real-life practical
experience of trying to get science working for mankind – and who was
succeeding – but also (somehow!) managed to keep the ‘romance’ of
the science alive by being a practising scientist and a teacher. This was
so important to younger scientists who at that age need to be shown how
what they have learnt can make a difference.” Sean stresses that
alongside all his ‘political’ and technical achievements was, “David
the teacher and mentor. David always had time to discuss and share
experiences, and most of all to help.” And also, “David the scientist.
Once one of my staff in
Kenya
showed David some (we thought) beautifully prepared insect specimens (from
coffee plants) for identification. David sucked on his pipe and after a
long pause said, ‘Mmm, they need proper labels.’ But this was not a
critical David – it was just David the professional.” Richard Hill
remembers with gratitude David's guidance in his early research, when he
was a student at Imperial College at Silwood Park but also responsible for
the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR)
gorse biocontrol project. He recollects how “a green, early 20-something
New Zealand
scientist first visited David at Farnham Royal to talk about the gorse
project. He was always helpful and full of ideas, and of course I soaked
up the stories about biological control history.” Richard’s memories
of those days include “David's good company and droll sense of
humour.” James Ogwang tells how, also as a student at
Silwood
Park
, “Dr Greathead was a reference for me, perhaps one of the pillars that
influenced me to develop interest in biocontrol. I remember him as a
simple easy-to-approach fellow who was always smoking his pipe.” The
significance to biological control of David’s encouragement of young
scientists is well-illustrated by this, for James went on to be a driving
force in the biocontrol effort against water hyacinth in East Africa, and
the instigator of the community-based mass releases of Neochetina weevils
that famously led to the weed’s biological control on Lake Victoria in
the late 1990s. |
| David’s
return to
Europe
did nothing to dim his enthusiasm for helping developing countries conduct
safe and effective biological control. It was one of his motives in
championing the need for international guidelines. Increasing
environmental awareness had had a double-edged impact on biological
control: potential environmental as well as economic nontarget effects of
introduced biocontrol agents were starting to be seen to be significant;
meanwhile, the emergence of IPM, in response to overuse of pesticides, was
leading to increased adoption of biological control as its cornerstone.
Thus countries with little or no previous experience of biological control
were starting to make introductions of biological control agents, both for
classical biological control and formulated as biological pesticides.
Around 1989, David, on behalf of IIBC, together with the International
Organization for Biological Control (IOBC), approached FAO to propose an
international code of conduct. As David later wrote8, “FAO
commissioned
Professor Michael Way
from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine,
London
, an advisor to FAO on IPM, to prepare a review and discussion document on
the need for a code, in association with IIBC and in collaboration with
the FAO Integrated Pest Management Programme.” With this as the starting
point, a worldwide consultative process over the ensuing years led to the
development of the code as an International Standard for Phytosanitary
Measures (ISPM) of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC: an
international treaty for protection of plant resources), under the
guidance of Dr Gerard Schulten of FAO and with support from David,
culminating in its endorsement by FAO member countries at the end of 1995
and formal publication in 1996 as ISPM No. 39. |
| An
assessment of ISPM No. 3, conducted by Moses Kairo, Matthew Cock and Megan
Quinlan in 200310, described its publication as timely: in many developing
countries the economic and social factors influencing biological control
decisions tended to be more concerned with economic and food security
issues than impact on indigenous species. They comment:
“It is those mostly developing countries recently starting to use
biological control or with an opportunity to use biological control, which
benefited most from ISPM No. 3. Until ISPM No. 3 was prepared, there was
little guidance available to these countries and none with the
international authority that is embodied in ISPM No. 3. [It] gave them
increased confidence to proceed, based on the assurance that they were
following international standards and procedures.” The authors also note
that it “has provided a good basis for facilitation of regional projects
and dialogue between countries facing similar problems.” The authors end
by acknowledging that although many people were involved in the process,
the efforts of Gerard Schulten and David Greathead were particularly
important in seeing ISPM No. 3 through to finalization and ratification.
David’s thoroughness and patience were key to the ultimate success of an
initiative. He himself used to
observe ruefully that he was often labelled as pessimistic when he pointed
out difficulties with other people’s bright ideas; his strength was that
he not just foresaw problems, but persevered until ways had been found to
overcome them. [ISPM No. 3 was revised and republished in April 2005.] |
| The
quantity and quality of David’s publications were recognized in 1977
when
London
University
awarded him a DSc. He continued to contribute significantly to biological
control literature, including, with Jeff Waage, Opportunities for
biological control of agricultural pests in developing countries published
in 198311, and he edited with Jeff the Royal Entomological
Society of London’s symposium volume Insect parasitoids in 199412.
However, a major contribution during this phase, and still used today, was
the BIOCAT database. This, according to David Girling, was initially a
card database, kept by David, of all introductions of insect natural
enemies (parasitoids and predators) for biological control of insect pests
worldwide; his wife Annette took over running it when it was put on
computer. David recognized, and he and Annette say in their 1992 review of
BIOCAT in BNI13, “the results of introductions of
agents of classical biological control are of great interest, not only to
biological control practitioners, but also to ecologists interested in
biogeography, and the process of colonization by invading species, to
taxonomists who may encounter unfamiliar species and to conservationists
concerned with their impact on native biota.” |
| Notwithstanding
his progressive approach to biological control, David had definite ideas
about what made a good biological control scientist, and among things he
instilled into his recruits was the importance of taxonomy, encouraging
them to develop a specific interest. His own interest in Bombyliidae and
other Diptera, especially in the Afrotropical Region, was how Neal
Evenhuis came across him: “I first became acquainted with David 23 years
ago when I was compiling for a book all the published scientific
literature of bee flies and was adding to it a short history of its
workers.” Neal wrote to coworkers he was including, requesting a photo.
“Everyone sent me portraits very quickly and without much fanfare,
wishing me well in my endeavor. Except
David. I had never corresponded with him previously and he said he would
get back to me, but only after finding just the right photo. I was baffled
by the response. What could he have in mind? I was just asking for a
simple portrait. All the photos of the other workers sent to me were the
run-of-the-mill portraits or the typical pose by the microscope.
Except David. David had a photo done especially for my book. It was
of him smartly dressed, smoking his pipe, and his head slightly tilted as
though finding something of interest while examining flowers on a shrub.
It was the best photo of the bunch and it typified David's method of
work.” Neal acknowledges David’s influence in a way that many will
recognize: “He generously
took me ‘under his wing’ as it were and – in addition to letting me
in on his incredible knowledge of African bee flies – he also taught me
about the necessities of scientific work: patience, thoroughness, and even
diplomacy in dealing with co-workers.” |
| Jeff
Waage (now Professor of Applied Ecology, Imperial College London) says:
“My favourite memory of David was during his time as Director of IIBC,
while I was his Deputy, perhaps because he had such an influence on me,
when I finally took that role.” He realized that, “David was not one
of those people who likes management for its own sake. For him, management
seemed more of a duty or a service, undertaken in order to support his
team, to help us to develop our programmes and to protect us from the
whims of the organization above. He was approachable, sympathetic, and
supportive, as such a manager would be. He could be a powerful calming
force to a fretful scientist. He did this with the aid of a pipe, the
filling, lighting and smoking of which created those frequent, thought
pauses that turned the crisis into a process of solution.” |
| Jeff
also saw characteristics many others have recognized: “The other feature
of David’s management that left a permanent stamp on the persona of IIBC
was his continuing interest in research and the day to-day business of
biocontrol. In so many organizations, you find staff and management tend
to differentiate, taking on different interests and priorities.
In IIBC, we were all, like David, just curious scientists. He set
the example, and that enabled us to all remain one team of colleagues,
whatever our secondary management role might be. And he let us all be our
own managers – under David, IIBC was a place where you could chase any
good idea you wanted, as long as you could find the money. In gentle and
supportive ways, David would get involved with many projects.” |
| This
was to prove crucial in a ground-breaking project that, not entirely by
coincidence, brought David’s career full circle (although not in a
literal sense) to where it started in Eritrea when, as Eileen Stower
described to Cliff Ashall, David first joined DLS and he and fellow
recruit Jerry Roffey could often be seen in Asmara “full of the joys of
spring careering round the town in the back of a 15-hundredweight truck
hanging onto the canopy irons.” Jeff Waage picks up the story more than
30 years later: “I remember clearly coffee time conversations [at
Silwood] with him and Chris Prior [now Head of Horticultural Science at
the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley], batting about the challenges of
locust control, the effect of oils on fungal spores and insect infection
in Papua New Guinea, and my rantings about getting enough resources to do
successful tropical biopesticide development. And then, eureka, an idea
was born that grew and grew and much later became LUBILOSA (Lutte
Biologique Contre les Locustes et Sauteriaux). Around other cups of
coffee, he would challenge us about classical biological control, drawing
from his vast knowledge and his BIOCAT project. Again and again, David
contributed while manager to so many of IIBC’s most creative moments in
his modest way. Gentleman manager and gentleman scientist, he was a very
singular person.” |
| The
LUBILOSA programme14, which went on to develop Green Muscle®
as a biopesticide for acridids, grew out of concerns about the use of
chemical pesticides during the locust plagues of the late 1980s which
fuelled a demand for an alternative. A short concept paper by Chris Prior
and David in the FAO Plant Protection Bulletin in 198915
identified deuteromycete fungi as promising candidate pathogens for locust
control. From this initial idea, CABI went on to lead, with the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, a multi-national,
multi-institutional team which confirmed that an isolate of the fungus Metarhizium
anisopliae var. acridum (IMI 330189) was the most effective
biological control agent available, and developed robust formulation and
application technology to allow it to be deployed as an effective
biopesticide, Green Muscle®, which has subsequently proved its
credentials in many field trials against locusts and grasshoppers in
Africa. Commercially produced
for the first time in
South Africa
in 1999, it is registered throughout West and East Africa, and is
recommended by FAO for use in environmentally sensitive areas; most
recently FAO organized a trial of Green Muscle® against local hopper
outbreaks in
Mauritania
in October 2006. David’s
early population studies with Bill Stower2 are achieving new
significance: understanding multiplication rates and population numbers is
becoming important in deploying Green Muscle® to manage population size
in pre- and early post swarming locust populations. |
| The
significance of David’s contribution to LUBILOSA went beyond the belief
that biological control could work as part of locust control. The
groundbreaking work in the programme was not based solely on the
recognition of a suitable pathogen, but also relied on advances in
formulation and application technology, so the fungal spores could be
formulated as an oil suspension with a long shelf life, and sprayed using
standard ultra low volume spinning disk spray equipment. His conviction
that biological control should be based on science meant there was support
for the recruitment of postdoctoral researchers, such as Matt Thomas (now
with CSIRO Entomology,
Australia
), under the Leverhulme Fellowship scheme to investigate critical features
of locust biology and ecology. Roy Bateman (then CABI, now returned to
IPARC), who was involved in the application aspects of the biopesticide
development, says that “what marked David out was his breadth of view.
He was inclusive in his thinking; for example, welcoming of the pesticide
scientists and recognizing their value, despite being a world authority on
biological control – and this was ultimately to the benefit of the
locust programme.” Although much of this took place after David retired,
it was his knowledge and foresight that allowed it to germinate, and his
encouragement of scientists from diverse disciplines that laid the
foundations for its ultimate success. |
| At
60, David came up against CABI’s obligatory management retirement age,
and against his wishes stepped down as Director of IIBC. However, he was
awarded an Honorary Senior Research Fellowship at the Centre for
Population Biology, Imperial College London at
Silwood
Park
, and remained professionally very active in biological control and
bombyliid taxonomy. He continued to maintain BIOCAT, for example, and kept
up a regular flow of information and ideas to BNI. Although
saddened by some of the changes at CABI, he remained a stalwart support to
staff, and as ready as ever to discuss ideas and problems and dispense
advice based on his unparalleled knowledge. |
| Sean
Murphy reflects on David’s influence: “I think most would agree that
as one moves through life, one crosses paths with a few people who end up
deeply influencing one’s thoughts and even how one approaches a
significant part of one’s life. David was a leader, a great thinker, and
a visionary and path maker and (as the messages I have seen from across
the globe clearly show) he had a ‘guiding’ impact on many people.”
Speaking for CABI, he adds: “He commanded respect because of who he was
and what he stood for. David will not leave us – there is too much of
him in what we now do.” S. P. Singh echoes these sentiments on behalf of
the wider biocontrol community in saying, “the community will continue
to traverse the path shown by him.” But, in the words of Gordon Tiley, “News
of his most untimely death will have been received with shock and sorrow
by all who knew him.” |
| We
extend our deepest sympathy to Annette and her family at the loss of this
most singular scientist, man, husband, father and grandfather. |
|
1.
Greathead,
D.J. (1963) A review of the insect enemies of Acridoidea (Orthoptera). Transactions
of the Royal Entomological Society of
London
114: 437–517.
2.
Stower,
W.J. & Greathead, D.J. (1969) Numerical changes in populations of the
desert locust with special reference to factors responsible for mortality.
Journal of Applied Ecology 6: 203–235.
3.
Greathead,
D.J. (2003) Historical overview of biological control in
Africa
. In: Neuenschwander, P, Borgemeister, C. & Langewald, J. (eds) Biological
control in IPM systems in
Africa
. CABI Publishing,
Wallingford
,
UK
, pp. 1–26.
4.
Greathead,
D.J. (1971) A review of biological control in the Ethiopian Region.
Technical Communication No. 5. Commonwealth Institute of Biological
Control. CAB,
Farnham Royal
,
UK
, 162 pp.
5.
Greathead,
D.J. (ed) (1976) A review of biological control in western and southern
Europe
. Technical Communication No. 7. Commonwealth Institute of Biological
Control. CAB,
Farnham Royal
,
UK
, 182 pp.
6.
Greathead,
D.J. (1997) A passage to the
Cape of Good Hope
. D.J. Greathead,
Wargrave
,
UK
, 132 pp.
7.
Cooper,
J. The Greathead family one name study:www.greathead.org/
8.
Greathead,
D.J. (1997) An introduction to the FAO code of conduct for the import and
release of exotic biological control agents. Biocontrol News and
Information 18: 117N–118N.
9.
IPPC
(1996) ISPM No. 3. Code of conduct for the import and release of exotic
biological control agents. [Revised as: ISPM No. 3 (2005) Guidelines for
the export, shipment, import and release of biological News 9N
control agents and other beneficial organisms. www.ippc.int/IPP/En/default.jsp]
10.
Kairo,
M.T.K., Cock, M.J.W. & Quinlan, M.M. (2003) An assessment of the use
of the code of conduct for the import and release of exotic biological
control agents (ISPM No. 3) since its endorsement as an international
standard. Biocontrol News and Information 24: 15N–27N.
11.
Greathead,
D.J. & Waage, J.K. (1983) Opportunities for biological control of
agricultural pests in developing countries. World Bank Technical Paper
No. 11, pp. 1–44.
12.
Waage,
J.K. & Greathead, D.J. (eds) (1986) Insect parasitoids. 13th
Symposium of the Royal Entomological Society of
London
. Academic Press, 406 pp.
13.
Greathead,
D.J. & Greathead, A.H. (1992) Biological control of insect pests by
insect parasitoids and predators: the BIOCAT database. Biocontrol News
and Information 13: 61N–68N.
14.
LUBILOSA
website: www.lubilosa.org/
15.
Prior,
C. & Greathead, D.J. (1989) Biological control of locusts: the
potential for exploitation of pathogens. FAO Plant Protection Bulletin 37:
37–48. |
|
We
are grateful to Cliff Ashall, Roy Bateman, Keith Cressman, Charles
Dewhurst, Harry Evans, Neal Evenhuis, David Girling, Keith Harris, Jocelyn
Hemming, Richard Hill, Tecwyn Jones, Peter Kenmore, Fred Legner, Joyce
Magor, Donald McNutt, Sean Murphy, James Ogwang, Mark Ritchie, Ian
Robertson, S. P. Singh, Gordon Tiley and Jeff Waage for help and
contributions. We owe a particular debt to Keith Harris for sources,
contact details and advice.
|
|
