Jean Risbec (1895-1964) was a French zoologist who specialised in studying the insects and Molluscs of New Caledonia, as well as being a taxonomist of the parasitic Hymenoptera.
Little is recorded about Risbec's early life but from 1921 to 1928 he was a teacher of Mathematics at the Lycée Lapeyrouse in Nouméa where he carried out studies of Nudibranchs in his spare time.
This book captures the colonial life in Nouméa at a time before there were even sewers and roads and most travel was conducted on horseback.
[1] He returned to New Caledonia as an agricultural entomologist[1] and was resident in Nouméa until the mid 1930s, continuing to study the anatomy and biology of coastal molluscs and publishing over 30 papers.
Due to disagreements over taxonomy with another agricultural entomologist, Jean Ghesquière, this book could not be published in France and Risbec had to arrange publication in Africa.