Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (/soʊˈsjʊər/;[1] French: [də sosyʁ]; 27 November 1829 – 20 February 1905) was a Swiss mineralogist, taxonomist and entomologist specialising in studies of hymenopteroid and orthopteroid insects.
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.
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.
[2] 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).