Felix Santschi (1 December 1872 – 20 November 1940) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

known for discovering that ants use the sun as a compass and for describing about 2000 taxa of ants. Santschi is known for his pioneering work on the navigational abilities of ants. In one experiment, he investigated the way harvester ants used the sky to navigate. He found that as long as even a small patch of sky was visible, the ants could return directly to the nest after gathering food. However, when the sky was completely hidden, they lost their sense of direction and began moving haphazardly. Some seventy years later it was shown that ants are guided by the

polarization Polarization or polarisation may refer to: Mathematics *Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds *Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by ...

of light.

References

1872 births 1940 deaths Swiss entomologists Myrmecologists {{Switzerland-scientist-stub