Dissertation über die Erzeugung und Verwandlungen der Insekten von Surinam, Tafel 44
1705
Maria Sibylla Merian was a rockstar of the scientific world long before women were typically allowed in the lab. In this stunning 1705 plate from her groundbreaking book on Surinam's insects, she meticulously documents the entire life cycle of a butterfly right on its host plant. You can see the striped caterpillar munching away on a leaf, the brown chrysalis hanging tight, and the beautiful adult butterflies showing off their wings. Merian actually traveled to South America at age 52—a wildly dangerous trip for the time—just to observe these metamorphoses firsthand, completely debunking the old myth that insects spontaneously generated from mud!