John Buchanan's drawing of Palinurus tumidus, later known as the packhorse 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
Royal Society of New Zealand
Reference:
T. W. Kirk, 'Description of a new Species of Palinurus'. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 12 (1879): 313
Lithograph by John Buchanan
Permission of the Royal Society of New Zealand must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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