Darwin’s Lost Beetle Is Back

On August 24, 1832, HMS Beagle dropped anchor at Bahía Blanca, a deep natural harbor in present-day Argentina. On board was a 23-year-old naturalist, Charles Darwin. He had been at sea since December 27, 1831, when the left Plymouth. Darwin had spent most of those months incapacitated with seasickness. During one bout of nausea, staring sadly down at a long, slow inescapable swell unfurling below him, he wrote, “This & three following days were ones of great & ceaseless suffering.”