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Charles Anthony
Fleschner, Biological Control: Riverside
1911-1993 Charley
was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Little Rock High School.
In 1928, he drove to southern California with an uncle and cousin "to
look the place over." Charley, sans high school diploma, decided to stay
and began working for Stationers Corp., Los Angeles. In 1930 he married
Antoinette (Annette) Marsman, who earlier had given him a book on dragonflies
because of his keen interest in nature study and insects in particular. Their
two sons, Anthony and Michael, were born in 1939 and 1943, respectively. Through
self-education, and the encouragement of his wife, Charley successfully
passed entrance examinations and began a college curriculum at Glendale
Junior College in 1938, at age 27. There he was befriended and strongly
influenced by a well-known entomologist, W. Dwight Pierce, whose enthusiasm
for the subject and genuine interest in budding entomologists was widely
recognized. Charley attended UCLA in 1939 and 1940. He later enrolled at UCB,
where he was awarded the B.S. degree in 1943. Charley worked in a shipyard in
the San Francisco Bay and Oakland area for a period during World War II. He
returned to southern California in 1946 and began his dissertation research
at the Citrus Experiment Station with Professors H. S. Smith and S. E. Flanders,
Department of Biological Control. Charley was awarded the Ph.D. degree at UCB
in February 1948. Fleschner's
career at the Riverside campus spanned twenty-four years, 1948 to 1972,
during which he authored or co-authored over eighty papers. His early research
dealt mainly with population ecology of plant-feeding mites. He was a firm
believer in making detailed hands-on observations of pest mites and their
natural enemies in the field, especially in the absence of pesticides.
Perhaps his major creative contribution to the population-ecology literature
is reflected in the title, "The Role of Edaphic [soil and water] Factors
in the Population Ecology of Panonychus citri [citrus red mite]."
His research also demonstrated the detrimental effect of dust on the activity
of beneficial insects and mites on the leaves and fruits of citrus and
avocados. He and Annette made several foreign collecting trips to search for
new natural enemies. This use of exotic predators was a pioneering approach
to the control of spider mites. His enthusiastically-given invited lectures
at universities in Mexico, India, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Argentina, Peru,
and elsewhere brought many student applicants to UC to study biological
control of pest organisms. His fluency in Spanish greatly added to the
success of trips to Spanish-speaking countries. Charley's
interest in the use of natural enemies to control pests was broad. During the
early years of his research career he worked mainly with primary pests such
as citrus red mite and avocado brown mite and mite pests of greenhouse
culture. A survey in 1965 of the Anthocoridae of the Pacific Slope greatly
advanced and clarified the status of these important predaceous insects. He
was among the first to document the presence in southern California of the
spider mite, Tetranychus evansi, a highly destructive pest of
solanaceous plants. Other projects he engaged in included the effect of air
pollutants and their residues on entomophagous insects and mites, and the use
of insects to control puncture vine on the mainland and prickly pear cactus
on Santa Cruz Island. While
chair of the Universitywide Department of Biological Control from 1959 to
1964, Fleschner promoter the concept and application of the biological
control method through articles and lectures to outside audiences as well as
continuing to conduct formal courses at UCR. Two films he directed are still
used at UC and other teaching institutions. Among
his major administrative contributions was the constructing of favorable
relationships with the federal and state departments of agriculture and the
agricultural industry. In
recognition of his scientific contributions on the population ecology of
plant-feeding mites, he was invited in 1963 to chair the section of
Agricultural and Stored Products Acarology of The First International
Congress of Acarology, held at Fort Collins, Colorado. Fleschner
was a member of the California Forest Pest Control Action Council and of the
Southern California Forest Pest Committee. In 1965 he was appointed to the
USDA Plant Science and Entomology Research Advisory Committee by Secretary of
Agriculture Orville Freemen. It was his responsibility as a committee member
to review the research program of the United States Department of Agriculture
in his field of expertise. Following
Charley's retirement in 1972, the Fleschners spent time at their ranch near
Fossil, Oregon, and in Davis, California, where their daughter-in-law, Patti,
was completing an M.A. degree at UCD. After the death of his wife in 1974,
Fleschner moved to Trinidad, California, in 1977 to be near their two sons
and their families. In 1992 he married Adrian Love of Trinidad. Charley
subsequently entered wholeheartedly into community service through the
Trinidad Lions Club (he was a charter member) and the Trinidad Museum
Society. Leading nature walks that were well attended by youngsters and their
parents was a source of great satisfaction. Being an entomologist, he built a
fine, locally representative collection of insects for the museum. His devotion
to the museum and the community were deeply appreciated; the museum now bears
his name. Charles
Fleschner is survived by his wife, Adrian; by his sons, Charles, of Fortuna,
and David, of Trinidad, and four grandchildren. A brother, Lewis, resides in
Arkansas. Albert M. Boyce Erich Fred
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