Alexandre Arsène Girault (/ʒɪəˈroʊ/ zhee-ROH; 9 January 1884 – 2 May 1941) was an American entomologist specializing in the study of chalcid wasps.

He is named after his grandfather, Arsène Napoleon Alexandre Girault de Saint Fargeau, one of the founding faculty of the US Naval Academy.

[1][2] Girault earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1903.

[3] In a paper published in 1908, Girault vividly described an encounter with bedbugs in 1907 in a hotel room in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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.

He worked for the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (BSES) in Nelson (now Gordonvale, Queensland) at an annual salary of £400.

[3] Girault returned to Australia in 1917 to work as assistant entomologist in the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock.

He began to include acerbic criticisms, poems, and essays in his papers, resulting in publishers turning his work away and frequent clashes with superiors and colleagues.

Among a list of synonyms in Descriptiones hymenopterorum chalcidoidicarum variorum cum observationibus (1917), is the completely out of place "Liberty is Soul".

[8] One of his most famous poems was aimed at his USDA superior and the then president of the Entomological Society of Washington, Altus Lacy Quaintance.

It was entitled A Song after the manner of 'Auld Lang Syne':[11][13] His Australian colleagues and superiors became the target of his criticism after he moved permanently to Australia.

Is not such a one now before us, a lover of insects at Cairns demanding and getting his cold thousand, with perquisites, before he will so much as embrace a single gnat?

Nature is to be explored and known by mankind, not only because she holds so much food and means for living, but also, and mostly, because she is the expression of the majesty of the mystical All.

Far other I see them.In the same paper, he also described a parody genus and species of a mymarid wasp, Shillingsworthia shillingsworthi from the planet Jupiter.

It was a sarcastic insult meant for his then superior, Johann Francis Illingworth: Shillingsworthia: Like Polynema but petiole, head, abdomen, mandibles absent.

This so thin genus is consecrated to Doctor Johann Francis Illingworth, in these days remarkable for his selfless devotion to entomology, not only sacrificing all of the comforts of life, but as well his health and reputation to the uncompromising search for truth and for love of "those filmy people of the air."

In one instance, the director of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock actually prohibited him from publishing several new genera and species.

This included many genus names including Davincia, Shakespearia, Beethovena, Mozartella, Elijahia, Emersonia, Emersonella, Emersonopsis, Raffaellia, Raphaelana, Raphaelonia, Ovidia, Goetheana, Goethella, Lutheria, Marxella, Marxiana, Thoreauella, Thoreauia, Tennysoniana, Lincolna, Lincolnanna, Bachiana, Keatsia, Whittieria, Plutarchia, Haeckeliania, Schilleria, Aeschylia, Aligheria, Aligherinia, Anselmella, Rubensteina, Carlyleia, Grotiusomyia, Grotiusella, Borrowella, Finlayia, Boudiennyia, Richteria, Ratzeburgalla, Buonapartea, Zamenhofella, Gounodia, Herodotia, Anthemiella, Delisleia, Cowperella, Cowperia, Hannibalia, Magellanana, Lamennaisia, Lomonosoffiella, Angeliconana, Giorgionia, and Froudeana, plus numerous epithets such as longfellowi, shakespearei, goethei, etc.

[3][9] Despite this, Girault's work is still considered valid by current taxonomists because of his careful preparation of the type specimens.

[6][7][8][9] However, Girault died before he could complete his final great work, a monograph on Australian chalcid wasps started in 1917.

[6] The bulk of his work and his type specimens were later reexamined by the Queensland Museum Curator of Entomology Edward "Ted" J. Dahms in the 1970s.