At a time when few women were educated or literate — and rarely travelled — German-born naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) made history with her studies of insects in Surinam. Trained as a copperplate engraver and watercolorist, she documented the metamorphosis of butterflies, laying the foundation for modern entomology. What Merian observed when breeding native species of butterfly triggered her curiosity, and spurred her to further investigation; the development from ovum, via larva and chrysalis, to adult butterfly was not fully understood in the 17 th century. And not every pupa developed into a butterfly, which puzzled Merian for a long time.