Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure

Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (27 November 1829 Geneva – 20 February 1905 Geneva), was a Swiss mineralogist and entomologist specialising in studies of Hymenoptera and Orthoptera. He also was a prolific taxonomist.

His elementary education was at Briquet then, at an advanced level at the Institute of Fellenberg. At Fellenberg he was taught by François Jules Pictet de la Rive who introduced him to entomology. After several years study in Paris where he received the degree of licenciate of the Faculty of Paris and obtaining the degree Doctor from the University of Gießen.

He worked mainly on Hymenoptera and Orthoptera. His first paper, in 1852, was on solitary wasps.

In 1854 he travelled to the West Indies, then to Mexico and the United States of America. There he met Louis Agassiz.

He returned to Switzerland in 1856 with collections of American insects, myriapods, crustaceans, birds and mammals.

Also interested in geography, geology and ethnology he founded the Geographical Society of Geneva in 1858.

He was also a member of the managing committee of the Natural History Museum of Geneva ensuring that its collections of Hymenoptera and Orthoptera became one of the best in the world.

In 1872 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Entomological Society of London.

He had nine children including the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who was his eldest son, and René de Saussure.

Contents

Works

Hymenoptera

-Mélanges hyménoptérologiques. Extrait du Tome XIV des "mémoires de la Société de Physique etc. Genève, Cherbuliez, Paris, Masson. 1854.

Orthoptera

References

External links