I20 



©bituar^. 



PROF. P. C. ZELLER. 



The death of this veteran lepidopterist has occurred, long 

 expected and deeply regretted. Seven years younger than the 

 century itself, Prof. Zeller was born on the 9th of April, 1808. 

 Professor in the Prussian Real Schule at Meseritz, he was finally 

 retired on a Government pension, and has lived since 1870 near 

 Stettin, continuing his entomological labors in connection with 

 the Entomological Society of Stettin. Commencing to write at 

 an early age. Professor Zeller has grown up with the modern 

 science of Jepidopterology. His earliest studies were upon the 

 collections of Frau Lienig and the material brought by himself 

 from a Southern trip, which extended as far as Sicily. Zeller 

 discovered the curious diurnal Rhodocera Farinosa, besides 

 describing certain LyccBiiidcc, but his principal attention was given 

 to the small moths of the families PyralidcB to Tiiieidce, the 

 modern classification of which he may be said to have founded. 

 He first cleared up the confusion as to the genera of PJiycidcE ^nA 

 by using natural characters, chiefly secondary sexual ones, he 

 succeeded in disentangling our minds with' regard to the order of 

 nature in this obscure and neglected field of inquiry. His species 

 and genera are very numerous and almost always valid. It is a 

 misfortune that his valuable monograph on the Crauibida; was 

 issued so nearly simultaneously with the worthless writings of 

 Francis Walker on the same subject, so that some of our North 

 American material has been twice named. The evidence seems 

 to be that Zeller's paper may have been earlier. As a matter of 

 justice it should have priority. In a series of articles, published 

 since retirement from official duties, Prof. Zeller described a 

 number of moths from North America. Rather more than the, 

 unfortunately not to be avoided, proportion of synonyms mark 

 the papers, which are otherwise models of what descriptional 

 work ought to be. Still later, Professor Zeller has published a 

 beautifully illustrated volume on microlepidoptera and has given 

 a classification of Chilo. As I remember him, in 1867, Prof. 

 Zeller was a white-haired gentleman of very kind manners and 

 enthusiastic for his favorite science. He was moderately thin 

 and tall, wearing a slight whisker, but otherwise with clean shaven 

 mouth and face. His nose was large and well-shapen, his eyes 

 bright and the whole expression of his face pleasing. He had 

 high cheek bones and his countenance was unmistakably German 

 in its salient features. Loew, the celebrated dipterist, was then 

 living in Meseritz, and an entomological excursion which 1 made 

 with these two celebrities is among the most pleasant of my 



