Cyril Pemberton

Cyril Eugene Pemberton (August 12, 1886, Los Angeles, California – May 16, 1975, Diamond Head, Hawaii) was an American economic entomologist known for his work with sugar cane pests.

Cyril Pemberton was born to parents descended from Canton, Missouri, on a small citrus orchard in Los Angeles County at the height of the cottony cushion scale infestation.

Since 1919, Pemberton became employed by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) and during the 1920s their wealth allowed their rising entomological star to undertake long trips to Australia, New Guinea, Fiji, Philippines, Java, Singapore, Borneo, Southeast Asia and India in order to find predatory and parasitic insects to protect Hawaii's cane and tropical fruit crops.

[4] He was to spend the majority of his life during this decade in remote tropical rainforests until the Great Depression made it too costly for the HSPA to sponsor lengthy voyages by its leading entomologist.

He was featured in the September 1929 National Geographic article, Into Primeval Papua by Seaplane, chronicling a scientific expedition to the interior of New Guinea, including encounters with cannibals.

Pemberton would attend the Sixth Congress of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists in New Orleans from October 20 to November 7 in 1938, but a major heel injury in 1947 meant he could not undergo further expeditions.