Identification of New World aquatic invertebrate illustrations in The Drake Manuscript

Abstract

Images of aquatic invertebrates are included in a late 16th-century work, Historie Naturelle des Indes, also known as The Drake Manuscript. While the renderings are often whimsical and exaggerated, they nonetheless appear to be based on direct observations. We sought to identify these aquatic invertebrates and explore their early history. Most were identifiable to species based on the renderings and captions. Images of horseshoe crab were also found in Brief and True Report of the Found Land of Virginia (1590), which contains etchings derived from watercolours by John White. We speculate that renderings of horseshoe crab in The Drake Manuscript may have descended from a lost detailed watercolour by John White in connection with his voyages to Roanoke rather than being based on direct observations. Finally, the freshwater unionoid mussel illustration appears to be the oldest known depiction of mantle lures unique to some species in this taxon.

Keywords:

• Bivalvia
• horseshoe crab
• Limulus polyphemus
• Mollusca
• Unionoida

Acknowledgements

We thank Professor G.S. Wasserman for helpful insights concerning the horseshoe crab. We also thank Guido Poppe, Philippe Poppe, Project Oceanica, Association Française de Conchyliologie, Chris Barnhart, Jon Fajans, and Florent Charpin for granting their permission to use their images for comparisons with taxa illustrated in The Drake Manuscript.