John Buchanan's drawing of Palinurus tumidus, later known as the packhorse rock lobster (or crayfish), appeared in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute in 1879. The image was accompanied by a description by T. W. Kirk, a zoologist in the Colonial Museum. The New Zealand Institute had been established in 1867. Its local meetings and proceedings provided a forum for the serious study of New Zealand botany, zoology, geology, chemistry and ethnography (which normally meant study of the Māori people). The institute attracted a range of scholars and scientists, who were presented with a range of largely scientific research about the country, but it was not a place for wider speculation about New Zealand society.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Reference: T. W. Kirk, 'Description of a new Species of Palinurus'. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 12 (1879): 313
by John Buchanan
Permission of the Royal Society of New Zealand must be obtained before any re-use of this image.