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 e