He wrote numerous scientific papers and books on the butterflies and moths of Central Asia, Ukraine, Far East, Caucasus in Russian, Ukrainian, German, and English, and described many new taxa.

He invested the profits in buying specimens of Lepidoptera from collectors and organizing expeditions, mostly to Central Asia and Caucasus.

From 1918, he worked as a curator at the Shcherbak Zoology Museum [uk] of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

When the city was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941 Shelyuzhko remained under the German occupation, as his collection was left in Kyiv by University authorities as not valuable.

Rail cars with the collection were lost in Eastern Prussia, while Shelyuzhko got to Munich where he remained for the rest of his life, eventually taking West German citizenship.