‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!’ came to my mind when I read about the person who described this painted lobster. But the roles in this phrase about gratefulness are reversed on our case. I have seen many of these crustaceans in the Maldives, but it took me a while to find a story for picmybug. Here is one.
Necrobia ruficollis, the red-shouldered ham beetle, or red-necked bacon beetle is the dog in this story. And just to be clear, the beetle has certainly no direct contact to our lobster. Probably never had.
Pierre André Latreille, a Catholic priest and entomologist, would be the feeder. But I guess in an involuntary way. He lived from 1762 till 1833, and was imprisoned in 1793 in Bordeaux. In the French Revolution, during the Reign of Terror, 30 to 40.000 people died, and being imprisoned usually was followed by passing away. While for example Marie Antoinette died that year. He survived, and the reason why is extraordinary. And once again I must admit I couldn’t find all answers to my questions.
So how did he manage to get out of prison? In short, his enthusiasm for nature saved him (partially?). The ham beetle. He found and recognised it in his cell, and apparently it was a rare find. A doctor in that prison noted and admired his interest in the beetle, and reported it to a 15 year old (!) naturalist named Jean Baptiste Bory de Sain-Vincent. He managed to free Latreille (and another unknown person), so that he could continue his work to study nature. In fact Latreille just published his first studies of insects in 1792. Just in time! Bory obviously has read these documents. A ham beetle in prison. I don’t believe they had bacon and ham for the prisoners, I would think the beetles fed on the corpses of prisoners. In forensic entmology this beetle is known to feed on corpses in a later stage of decomposition. That would a macabre situation, the beetle that would have fed on him saved his life. Freed by the beetle that bites you! While Necrobia ruficollis is often referred to as the here who saved the rising star of entmology, I want to make sure to highlight the unknown doctor, and Bory as human heros.
What I’m not too certain about is Latreille’s political disposition. Was he conservative or not? I couldn’t find an answer whether he was released from prison because he wasn’t an enemy of the revolution at all, or if he had to change his mind in order to survive. I’m sure entomology wasn’t the official reason he wasn’t sent to the prison in Cayenne or worse. The ship, Le Répuplicain, he would have been on actually sunk according to the French Wikipedia page about Latreille!.
Source for most facts was ‘A celebration of Crustacea’ by Damkaer (2002).
The lobster by the way has become a rare sighting in South Ari. They are popular in restaurants, and fairly easy to find, and probably also to catch. Often they sit conveniently at only 5 to 10m. The long antennae can be seen from far away. I saw a video of a lobster using these antennas to keep a curious moray eel at distance.
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