Entomologist Spotlight – Anna Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

Anna Maria Sibylla Merian was a female entomologist and artist born in 1642 in Germany. She was an early pioneer in documenting the metamorphosis of butterflies and moths, especially in the New World. Unlike preceding scientific illustrators, she studied and referenced live insects in their natural environments, which made for more detailed, more life-like, and more accurate depictions.

Beginning her interest in insects as a young girl in Germany, Maria reared and studied caterpillars, tracking their lifecycle, metamorphism, and diet, which later influenced the development of the field of entomology. Another early influence in her life was her mother’s second husband, Johann Graff, a painter who helped her learn how to paint botanical subjects, which can be seen in many of her artworks.

Maria’s very early works focused mainly on flora, but her first piece about insects, published in 1679 and 1683, was Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung, which translates to “The wondrous transformation of caterpillars and their remarkable diet of flowers.” This was scientifically revolutionary because, at the time, it was widely believed that butterflies and moths were created through something called “spontaneous generation.” This outdated belief meant that many people assumed that insects materialized out of non-living material, like mud or sand.

Her passion for painting bugs led her to Suriname, a small country on the northern coast of South America, to study the metamorphosis of tropical butterflies like Morphos and Heliconius. During her trip, she created many metamorphic illustrations of the local bugs and insects which culminated in the publication of Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensis in 1705. Maria’s book gave entomologists in Europe a peek into the biodiversity the New World had to offer, as well as a new perspective on insects’ lives.

Even after her death in 1717, Maria’s daughters continued her work and posthumously published a 3rd book about caterpillars, complete with scientific illustrations. Even several species of butterflies were named after Maria, centuries after her death, including Heliconius melpomene meriana.

My personal favorite piece by Maria is the one shown below, simply called “Plate 49.” It’s my favorite because it shows a Fulgora laternaria, a cicada, and strangely, a laternaria’s head on a cicada’s body. She most likely assumed that each of these 2 insects were sexually dimorphic members of the same species, meaning males and females look different from each other. In her defense, little to nothing was known about these insects in the 1600’s, and their bodies can look somewhat similar.

Read more below:
Wiki | The British Museum

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