During his career, R. W. Holzenthal has been a nexus for training caddisfly workers and entomologists in general. He has taken great care to teach students the importance of taxonomy and has been a role model on high-quality revisionary taxonomic work. His focus has been on South America, where he has trained a generation of up-and-coming caddisfly taxonomists and naturalists. His natural and very supportive demeanor has kept young students motivated to pursue the discovery, description, and evolutionary study of insects and caddisflies in particular.

This special issue of ZooKeys will honor Dr. Holzenthal’s prolific career as one of the leading experts on caddisflies (Insecta: Trichoptera), with an emphasis on the Neotropical Region. The first three chapters in this issue will include an overview of his scientific life, a brief list of his academic achievements, and a more personal view of his life. Following the introductory chapters, there will be contributed papers from former students and colleagues to express respect for Dr. Holzenthal’s contributions to caddisfly taxonomy. These papers will mainly be on taxonomy in its broadest sense (e.g., alpha taxonomic descriptions of new species, generic revisions, species delimitation studies, keys).