Petr Wolfgang Wygodzinsky

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

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.