Charles Ferton

Louis Antoine François Charles Ferton (17 January 1856 – 30 April 1921) was a French artillery officer and entomologist who studied the behaviour of hymenoptera and contributed to ideas on insect instinct.

Ferton was born in Chierry, son of a namesake nurseryman and a founding member of the Château-Thierry agricultural and horticultural society who was married to Louise Victoire Appoline Bujot.

He graduated from Fontainebleau in 1877 and joined the army and was posted in Avignon (1882–86), Châtellerault (1886), Bourges (1887), Vincennes (1888), Algiers (1889–90), Angers (1891), Marseille (1892–94) and finally Bonifacio (1895-1921).

He examined the stinging behaviour of Sphex subfuscatus and identified errors in Fabre's observations.

Halictes fertoni described by Joseph Vachal in 1895 from a specimen collected from Algeria is now a synonym of Lasioglossum discum (Smith 1853).