Maria Sibylla Merian

Anna Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a German artist and entomologist who studied plants and insects and made detailed drawings of them. Her observations and documentation of the metamorphosis from caterpillars to butterflies are an important, if not widely known, contribution to entomology. As far as we know, she was the first to draw the insects along with the plant they thrived on.