Maria Sibylla Merian

Merian trained under her stepfather Jacob Marrel and published her first book of natural illustrations in 1675. She had been raising silkworms since age 13 and collecting insects through adolescence. Between 1679 and 1683 she released two volumes on caterpillars — 50 engraved plates each — documenting metamorphosis and plant hosts for 186 European species. In 1699 she sailed to Dutch Guiana to study tropical insects, work that became Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium in 1705. Her careful records of egg to larva to pupa to adult dismantled the old conviction that insects were born of mud,…