page_title: Alexandre Arsène Girault
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandre Arsène Girault / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: The American entomologist Alexandre Arsène Girault and family. Left to right: Elizabeth, Larry, Helen, Alexandre, and Ernest. Taken at Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia
context_page_description: Alexandre Arsène Girault was an American entomologist specializing in the study of chalcid wasps. An eccentric and controversial figure, Girault was also a prolific and dedicated entomologist. He published more than 325 papers and described over 3000 new taxa from Australia.
context_section_description: Alexandre Arsène Girault was born in Annapolis, Maryland, on January 9, 1884, to Joseph Bonaparte Girault and Elizabeth Frances Girault (née Goodwin). He is named after his grandfather, Arsène Napoleon Alexandre Girault de Saint Fargeau, one of the founding faculty of the US Naval Academy.
  Girault earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1903. From 1904 to 1907 he was employed as a field assistant for the United States Bureau of Entomology. During this time, he was involved in research on plum curculios (Conotrachelus nenuphar), Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), and American plum borers (Euzophera semifuneralis). In 1908, he moved to Urbana, Illinois, where he worked as a laboratory assistant of the Illinois State Entomologist. From 1909 to 1911 (still in the employ of the Illinois State Entomologist), he worked as an assistant in entomology at the University of Illinois, studying bedbugs (Cimex spp.) and Colorado potato beetles.
  In a paper published in 1908, Girault vividly described an encounter with bedbugs in 1907 in a hotel room in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was reluctant to sleep on the bed after discovering the bedbugs as he entered the room a little after midnight. He eventually decided to keep the lights on and to lie across the bed without getting under the covers. He slept fitfully, constantly waking up to find bedbugs scurrying away after feeding on him. At 3:30 AM, he eventually gave up and slept on a rocking chair. Despite the discomfort, he systematically described the behaviour and stages of maturity of the bedbugs, the general conditions of the room, and attempted to search for eggs and moultings of the insects.
  Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the Government of Queensland requested the services of an entomologist from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), hoping to discover the reason for the failure of the sugarcane crops in Queensland. Highly recommended by his superiors, Girault moved to Australia in 1911. He worked for the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (BSES) in Nelson (now Gordonvale, Queensland) at an annual salary of £400. His main area of study while in BSES was the cane beetle (Dermolepida albohirtum), a pest of sugarcanes; but he also studied parasitoid wasps (his area of expertise and personal interest), as well as some true bugs and thrips. Here, he met and married Elizabeth Jeannette Pilcher in 1911. Their first child, Ernest Alexandre Girault, was born on November 3, 1913.
  In 1914, Girault moved back to the United States to resume working for the USDA. He worked in Washington, D.C., on Chalcidoidea systematics. During this time, his wife gave birth to their second son and first daughter, Lawrence Joseph Girault on August 27, 1915, and Helen Joan Girault on August 10, 1917. He strongly disliked the city, describing it as a "bedlam" and "a place unfit for scholarship." Yet during this time, he also finished his major work, a 900-page monograph on chalcid wasps.
  Girault returned to Australia in 1917 to work as assistant entomologist in the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. He and his family lived in Indooroopilly, Brisbane, where his second daughter and third son were born (Daisy Lydia Girault on July 19, 1925, and Frank Stephen Girault on May 23, 1928). He never returned to the United States, though he retained his American citizenship.
  Girault's work was irregular in Australia, including periods of unemployment. This was exacerbated by bad economic conditions in Australia as a result of World War I. His work at the Department of Agriculture and Stock ceased in 1919, but resumed again from 1923 to 1930. At times, Girault was forced to work in jobs unrelated to his field of expertise out of necessity (including working as a shopkeeper and as a rock-breaker in a stone quarry). He also increasingly became disillusioned with economic entomology (which also prompted his departure from the United States). He began to include acerbic criticisms, poems, and essays in his papers, resulting in p
caption: Alexandre Arsène Girault and family (left to right: Elizabeth, Lawrence, Helen, Alexandre, and Ernest). Taken at Stanthorpe, Queensland on April 25, 1924. Frank and Daisy Girault have yet to be born at this time.
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