Darwin's crabs

The diary entry reads: 'June 1833 Maldonado; Crab, caught in dry hole in one of the low islands of the R.Parana, above Rosario'. The diarist was Charles Darwin, born on this day in 1809, the crab [above] was just one of 230 crustaceans Darwin collected during his voyage aboard HMS Beagle and had shipped back to England. On his return Darwin's specimens did the rounds, passing through the hands of many earnest enquirers into the nature of nature. The crabs eventually found quarters in cabinets belonging to the zoologist Thomas Bell, author of the authoritative tome A History of the British Stalk-eyed Crustacea. While Bell helped Darwin with his turtles, proving that the many varieties with their different shell patterns were all native Galapagosians, he apparently lost interest in the crustacea. in 1862 they were rescued from obscurity by John Obadiah Westwood, Oxford's first Hope Professor of Zoology who bought them for the Oxford University Museum of Natural History where they still reside to this day.

[Diary entry: 'November & December 1834; Archipelago of Chiloe; Crabs in the greatest numbers under the stones']

Darwin wrote to Westwood in August 1861 to give his blessing to the relocation: 'Your note of the 12^th has been received here today. Although as a general rule it seems to me best to deposit specimens in the Brit. Museum & I bitterly regret I did not send there all my specimens yet from what you say it gives me real pleasure to concur with Prof. Bell in sending my Crustaceans to the Oxford museum, which under your guardianship I do not doubt will become a grand repository.' Apparently Darwin did not think much of the British Museum's zoological collections at the time of his return but later regretted splitting up the fruits of his Beagle voyage amongst so many different specialists. 

['May 1835 Mauritius; 1504; Crust Brachyuri Mr Page']

The handwritten labels that accompany many of the specimens are believed to be the work of Syms Covington, Darwin's assistant who helped him in his work aboard HMS Beagle. Covington remained in Darwin's service until 1839 when he emigrated to Australia, but this did not prevent his former master from asking for a favour; in March 1849 Darwin wrote to Covington: 'I am now employed on a large volume, describing the anatomy and all the species of barnacles from all over the world. I do not know whether you live near the sea, but if so I should be very glad if you would collect me any that adhere (small and large) to the coast rocks or to shells or to corals thrown up by gales, and send them to me without cleaning out the animals, and taking care of the bases...'

['August 1834 Valparaiso; crab, above dark "Cochi. R." Legs "Hyacinth & tile front pincers purplish".]

It took many years to gather together all the crustacea, with the last specimens making their way across to their permanent home in the OU zoological collection in 1975. Now Charles Darwin's neglected crabs have been electronically catalogued and can be viewed in their full glory as part of the OU Museum of Natural History's Darwin database.

All images copyright the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Letter extracts from The Darwin Correspondence Project. 

Your comments

• Darwin's crabs

  Richard Carter, FCD | 22 Feb 08

  Wonderful photos. Thanks for publishing them.

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