Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure


Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure was a Swiss mineralogist and entomologist specialising in studies of Hymenoptera and Orthoptera. He also was a prolific taxonomist.

Biography

Saussure's elementary education was at Alphonse Briquet's then, as an adolescent, at the Hofwyl school run by Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg. At the University of Geneva he was taught by François Jules Pictet de la Rive, who introduced him to entomology. After several years of study in Paris he received the degree of licentiate of the Faculty of Paris and obtained the degree of 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 traveled 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 co-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; Horace ; Albertine Adèle, named for Henri's aunt and sister-in-law; Elisabeth "Dora" Théodora ; Léopold ; René de Saussure ; Jeanne ; Louis Octave ; and Maximilien.

Works

Hymenoptera

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