26 



to our President for the following particulars of his life and work, 

 abstracted from the " Stett. Ent. Zeit," 1883, pp. 405-418. 



Phillip Christoph Zeller was born in 1808. After his university 

 career he became a teacher at Glogau, where he remained till 1869, 

 when in consequence of chronic illness he retired and settled near 

 Stettin. In 1883 he died of heart failure at the age of 75. When 

 only fifteen years old Zeller began an entomological diary, but it 

 appears that he did not publish anything till 1838, when an article 

 on the Lepidoptera mentioned by Reaumur appeared in Oken's "Isis." 

 In the same publication the year following (1839) was printed one 

 of Zeller's most famous masterpieces, "An Attempt at the Natural 

 Classification of the Tineiua." It is almost impossible for living 

 entomologists to properly appreciate this paper of Zeller's, because 

 they can hardly understand the chaotic condition of ideas on the 

 Tijieina held by the entomologists at the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century. In 1844 Zeller was collecting in Italy and Sicily, and his 

 doings are chronicled in the "Isis" for 1847. In 1846 the Stettin 

 Entomological Society began publishing that important work known 

 as the " Linn^a Entomologica," the first volume of which contained 

 monographic articles by Zeller on Lithocolletis and Eudo?-ea. These 

 were followed by similar articles on other families of the Tiiieina and 

 Fyra/idiiia, that on the genus Coieophora appearing in 1849. The 

 revision of the Plerophoiidce appeared in 1852. In this year Zeller, 

 in company of Dr. Dohrn, visited England, both of them staying with 

 Stainton at Lewisham. Stainton arranged visits to Charlton sand- 

 pit. West Wickham Wood, Mickleham, and Sanderstead, and also to 

 Prof. Westwood at Hammersmith, and to Henry Doubleday at 

 Epping. It is to be feared, however, that, as Stainton says, Zeller 

 did not much enjoy this visit on account of the "water-feeling," as 

 he called it, that he acquired on his passage from Ostend to Dover, 

 and also from his strange antipathy to the smell of camphor. Three 

 years later Stainton returned this visit, staying at Glogau with Zeller, 

 and at Stettin with Dr. Dohrn. In this year (1855) also appeared 

 the first volume of the " Natural History of the Tineina" by Stainton, 

 Douglas. Zeller, and Frey, Zeller writing the German and Latin 

 texts. Zeller spent June and July in 1867 in Carinthia. In each of 

 the years 1871, 1873, ^.nd 1875, he spent about two months in the 

 neighbourhood of Bergiin in Switzerland. During these and later 

 years he wrote several articles on " Exotic Micro-lepidoptera." 



Zeller's collections are in the British Museum, and with them 

 are included some of his books, which are carefully annotated with 

 beautifully coloured drawings and neatly written notes, supple- 

 mentary to what he had published. 



Fischer von Roslerstamm, of Bohemia, in 1834 and secj., brought 

 out a most valuable work on about a hundred species of European 

 Lepidoptera, illustrated with magnificent plates, also as a supplement 

 to the work of Hiibner. They are chiefly devoted to micros, and 

 the finish and accuracy are exquisite. 



