Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium by Maria Sibylla Merian

Description

All 60 plates from Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), reproduced in full color from the original edition. At fifty-two, Merian sold her possessions to fund an unchaperoned voyage to Suriname to study insects in their natural surroundings — a scientific discipline almost unheard of at the time. Each plate shows an insect's full life cycle on the exact plant that fed it, painted from living specimens. Plate 18, showing a tarantula preying on a hummingbird, was dismissed as fantasy for two centuries until confirmed accurate in 2015.

Excerpt

I spent two years in the colony, raising caterpillars to adulthood and observing their host plants, painting what I saw directly from living specimens.