Coconut Crab, Birgus latro

Coconut Crab (Birgus latro), Page 80 from "Voyage autour du monde" (Voyage around the World) by Louis Claude Desaulses de Fréycinet (the original scientific name used by the author was Pagure larron).

In 1817, Louis de Fréycinet captained the Uranie on a journey to study the Earth's magnetism and to collect specimens from the South Seas. The result was a 17-volume report, "Voyage autour du monde". Its pages are filled with images of the flora, fauna and peoples of Australia, Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and islands of the Pacific, and depicted many plant and animal species that were new to European readers.

Fréycinet's "Voyage autour du monde" is particularly remarkable for the images of marine invertebrates, drawn from life aboard the Uranie before being preserved for study at the natural history museum in Paris. The plates are meticulously produced and employ a range of brilliant coloured inks that characterise the best of French publishing of the first half of the nineteenth century.