E. Leopold Trouvelot, Perpetrator of our Problem Etienne Leopold
Trouvelot was born on Dec. 26, 1827 in Aisne, France. He fled
France during the coup d'etat in 1852 and settled in Medford,
Massachusetts, a working-class suburb of Boston. He lived with
his wife and family in his house at 27 Myrtle St. in Trouvelot
made a living as an artist, painting mostly portraits, but he
had an amateur interest in entomology. His main interest was in
identifying native silkworms that might be used for silk
production. (L. Trouvelot(1867) The American Silk Worm. American
Naturalist, Vol. 1, No. 1., pp.30-38) The exact reasons or
circumstances are unknown, but in the late 1860's he returned
from a trip to France with some gypsy moth egg masses. He was
apparently culturing them on trees in back of his house when
some of the larvae escaped. Trouvelot understood the potential
magnitude of this accident and notified local entomologists but
no action was taken. After this accident, Trouvelot apparently
lost interest in entomology