Philipp Christoph Zeller
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
entomologist.
Zeller was born at Steinheim (Murr) Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, two miles from Marbach, the birthplace of Schiller. The family moved to Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
where Philip went to the gymnasium where natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
was not taught. Instead, helped by Alois Metzner, he taught himself entomology
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
mainly by copying books. Copying and hence memorising, developed in response to early financial privation became a lifetime habit. Zeller went next to the University of Berlin where he became a candidat, which is the first degree, obtained after two or three years' study around 1833. The subject was philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
. He became an Oberlehrer or senior primary school teacher in Glogau in 1835. Then he became an instructor at the secondary school in Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
and in 1860 he was appointed as the senior instructor of the highest technical high school in Meseritz
Meseritz
Meseritz may refer to:* Kreis Meseritz, a historical administrative subdivision of Posen District* German name for Międzyrzec Podlaski, a city in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland* German name for Międzyrzecz, a town in Lubusz Voivodeship, Poland...
. He resigned this post after leaving in 1869 for Stettin, home of the Stettin Entomological Society
Stettin Entomological Society
The Entomological Society of Stettin or Stettin Entomological Society, based in Stettin , was one of the leading entomological societies of the 19th century. Most German entomologists were members, as were many from England, Sweden, Italy, France, and Spain...
.
Zeller's first entomological studies were of Coleoptera and Diptera
Diptera
Diptera , or true flies, is the order of insects possessing only a single pair of wings on the mesothorax; the metathorax bears a pair of drumstick like structures called the halteres, the remnants of the hind wings. It is a large order, containing an estimated 240,000 species, although under half...
and he especially admired Johann Wilhem Meigen's
Johann Wilhelm Meigen
Johann Wilhelm Meigen was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera.-Early years:Meigen was born in Solingen, the fifth of eight children of Johann Clemens Meigen and Sibylla Margaretha Bick. His parents, though not poor, were not wealthy either. The ran a small shop in...
“Zweiflügler”. This is of great importance since studies of Lepidoptera were then, as now, more concerned with species descriptions than with systematics
Systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...
and phylogenetic relationships and the nomenclature was already very confused (and confusing). Zeller's precise, orderly approach culminated in the most significant lepidopterological work of the nineteenth century - The Natural History of the Tineinae. This, a monumental 13-volume monograph, was commenced in 1855 and completed in 1873. The other main authors were the Englishman Henry Tibbats Stainton
Henry Tibbats Stainton
Henry Tibbats Stainton was an English entomologist.He was educated at King's College London.He was the author of Manual of British Butterflies and Moths and with the German entomologist Philipp Christoph Zeller, a Swiss, Heinrich Frey and another Englishman, John William Douglas of The Natural...
, a Swiss, Heinrich Frey and another Englishman, John William Douglas. The Natural History of the Tineinae appeared in English, French, German and Latin editions, the Irish entomologist Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday, also known as Enrico Alessandro Haliday and Alexis Heinrich Haliday sometimes Halliday , was an Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera and Thysanoptera, but Haliday worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology.Haliday...
doing the bulk of the translations. The work established Zeller as perhaps the greatest lepidopterist of the century.
He named 186 new genera of moths
His collection was acquired by Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham
Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham
Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham was an English politician and amateur entomologist.-Biography:...
and later donated to the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
.
Selected works
- Versuch einer naturgemässen Eintheilung der Schaben, Tinea (OkenLorenz OkenLorenz Oken was a German naturalist.Oken was born Lorenz Okenfuss in Bohlsbach in Baden and studied natural history and medicine at the universities of Freiburg and Würzburg. He went on to the University of Göttingen, where he became a Privatdozent , and shortened his name to Oken...
's Isis, 1839). - Kritische Bestimmung der in Reaumur's Memoiren vorkommenden Lepidopteren (Isis, 1838)
- Kritische Bestimmung der in de Geer's Memoiren enthaltenen Schmetterlinge (Isis, 1839)
- Monographie des Genus Hyponomeuta (Isis, 1844)
- Anmerkungen zu Lienig's Lepidopterologischer Fauna von Livland und Curland (Isis,1846)
- Die Arten der Blattminiergattung Lithocolletis beschrieben (Linnaea, 1846)
- Bemerkungen über die auf einer Reise nach Italien und Sicilien gesammelten Schmetterlingsarten" (Isis, 1847)
- Exotische Phyciden (Isis, 1848)
- Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Coleophoren" (Isis, 1849)
- Revision der Pterophoriden (Isis, 1852)
- Lepidoptera microptera quae J. A. Wahlberg in caffrorum terra legit (Stockholm, 1852)
- Die Arten der Gattung Butalis beschrieben (Linnaea, 1855)
- With Henry Tibbats StaintonHenry Tibbats StaintonHenry Tibbats Stainton was an English entomologist.He was educated at King's College London.He was the author of Manual of British Butterflies and Moths and with the German entomologist Philipp Christoph Zeller, a Swiss, Heinrich Frey and another Englishman, John William Douglas of The Natural...
, Heinrich FreyHeinrich FreyHeinrich Frey was a German-born Swiss entomologist who studied Lepidoptera. He was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and died in Zurich, Switzerland.-Biography:...
and John William DouglasJohn William DouglasJohn William Douglas was an English entomologist, chiefly interested in microlepidopteraJohn William Douglas was born 1814 in Putney. He became interested in insects whilst working at Kew Gardens and published many papers and books on entomology...
The Natural History of the Tineina, 13 volumes, 2000 pages (1855) - Beiträge zur Kenntnis der nordamerikanischen Nachtfalter" (3 parts, Verh. zool. bot. Gesellsch. Wien ,1872 - 73)
- Beiträge zur Lepidopterenfauna der Ober-Albula in Graubünden (Verh. zool. bot. Gesellsch. Wien., 1877)
- Exotische Lepidopteren (Horae soc. ent. Rossica, 1877)