Petr (Pedro or Peter) Wolfgang Wygodzinsky (5 October 1916 – 27 January 1987) was a German

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

who worked in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States . Wygodzinsky was born in Bonn, Germany on 5 October 1916 and educated at the University of Basel, Switzerland where he received his doctorate in 1941 under the direction of Eduard Handschin. His dissertation was a detailed study of the Diplura, Thysanura, and Microcoryphia of Switzerland. That same year he emigrated to Brazil where he intended to work as a bicycle mechanic. However, through contacts he met while sailing to Brazil he was able find work as a taxonomist for the National Malarial Service and later, the Ministry of Agriculture in Rio de Janeiro. He spent seven years in Brazil where he made the acquaintance of Brazilian entomologists Herman Lent and Hugo de Souza Lopes. In 1948 he moved to Tucuman, Argentina where he became a professor of entomology and genetics at the

National University of Tucumán The National University of Tucumán ( es, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, UNT) is an Argentine national university located in Tucumán Province and the largest in Argentina's northwest region. Founded on 25 May 1914 in San Miguel de Tucumán ...

. He also served as a specialist on the taxonomy of

black flies A black fly or blackfly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 speci ...

(Simuliidae) at the university's Institute of Tropical Medicine. He later worked for the Instituto Miguel Lillo and in 1958 he joined the faculty at the University of Buenos Aires as a professor of entomology. Wygodzinsky was well-known and respected for his entomological work in South America. In 1955 and again in 1960 he was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships to study at the University California, Berkeley, with his good friend

Robert L. Usinger Robert Leslie Usinger (October 24, 1912, Fort Bragg, California – October 1, 1968, San Francisco) was an American entomologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Davis. A fellow of the Linnea ...

. While at Berkeley he also met Jerome Rozen who was impressed with Wygodzinsky's abilities. Rozen later became chairman of the Entomology Department at the American Museum in New York and hired Wygodzinsky in 1962. Wygodzinsky remained at the American Museum for the rest of his career. In the late 1970s he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He worked for several more years and died on 27 January 1987 in Middletown, New York. He is especially known for his work on the hemipteran family Reduviidae, but also studied several other groups of insects in detail, namely Diplura, Archaeognatha, Zygentoma and

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

. Wygodzinsky published more than 250 papers. He was fluent in several languages, and wrote his papers in his native language German as well as in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

References

External links

"Pedro W. Wygodzinsky"
(obituary), ''New York Times'', 30 January 1987, p. B8

Biographical & Type Information - W. North Dakota State University German entomologists People associated with the American Museum of Natural History 1987 deaths 1916 births 20th-century German zoologists Scientists from Bonn German expatriates in Switzerland German expatriates in Brazil German expatriates in Argentina German expatriates in the United States {{entomologist-stub