Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (; ; 27 November 1829 – 20 February 1905) was a Swiss mineralogist and entomologist specialising in studies of Hymenoptera and Orthopteroid insects. 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. In 1873, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. He had nine children including the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857), who was his eldest son; Horace (c 1859); Albertine Adèle (1861), named for Henri's aunt and sister-in-law; Elisabeth "Dora" Théodora (1863); Léopold (1866); René de Saussure (1868); Jeanne (c 1869); Louis Octave (1871); and Maximilien (1873). Works Hymenoptera Études sur la Famille des Vespides. 1. Monographie des Guêpes solitaires, ou de la Tribu des Euméniens, comprenant la Classification et la Description de toutes les Espèces connues jusqu'à ce Jour, et servant de complément au Manuel de Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau. Paris : Masson pp. 1–128 pls ii-v, vii, x, xiv (1852). Note sur la tribu des Masariens et principalement sur le Masaris vespiformis. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Fr. (3)1: xvii-xxi (1853). Études sur la Famille des Vespides. 2. Monographie des Guêpes Sociales, ou de la Tribu des Vespiens, ouvrage faisant suite à la Monographies des Guêpes Solitaires. Paris : Masson pp. 1–96 pls 2-8, 13 (1853). Études sur la Famille des Vespides. Troisième Partie comprenant