Philipp Bertkau

Philipp Bertkau ( born January 11, 1849 in Cologne, † October 22, 1894 in Bonn ) was a German zoologist.

He worked in particular on the anatomy of the hermaphroditic arthropods, on the sense of smell of butterflies and about the anatomy and physiology of spiders. He dealt with the systematics in particular the South American spiders.

Bertkau studied natural sciences at the University of Bonn and was there in 1872 and his doctorate. In the fall of 1873 he was appointed assistant at the Botanical Institute in Munich. In the spring of the following year he went to Bonn, where he became an assistant at the Zoological Institute. In the same year he received the qualification to teach in secondary schools.

He took an active part in the Bonn Society of Natural History and was its secretary. On November 6, 1882 Bertkau was appointed at the agricultural academy of Poppelsdorf professor. In 1890 he was curator at the Institute of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy - a post which had been created especially for him. In 1891 he was elected a member of the Scholars Academy Leopoldina.

At the age of 44 years he became ill. He suffered from nervous disorders and paralysis and died soon after.