Maria Sibylla Merian – Wettengl, Kurt. Op = Op

At the young age of thirteen, Maria Sibylla Merian had already begun her systematic entomological research with a study of the silk worm, a description of which opens her second book, entitled Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung … (The Caterpillar’s Wondrous Metamorphosis …). Motivated by reports on the flora and fauna of Surinam published by missionaries of the pietistic Labadist church, which she joined in 1685, she undertook a perilous journey to the tropics. Following her return home, she had her inse…