76 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
After her separation from her husband she for a long 
time abandoned all kinds of company, and devoted herself 
exclusively to the painting of insects, in order to be able to 
represent them with sufficient accuracy for the purposes of 
Natural History. The result of her labors in this depart- 
ment appeared in 1679, in three volumes, published at Nu- 
remberg, the plates being engraved by herself. 
The difficulty of preserving Caterpillars and other larvee 
is sufficient to account for the small number to be found in 
cabinets, even at the present day; and the most obvious 
and satisfactory method of making up this deficiency is by 
colored drawings taken from living specimens. ‘The desire 
of supplying this important desideratum, in regard to some 
of the more remarkable insects of America, as well as of 
determining the nature of their metamorphosis and kind of 
food, had more influence in leading Madame Merian to visit 
this country than her wish to delineate the perfect insects, 
many of which were already known in Europe from the 
preserved specimens. 
She accordingly set sail for America in the year 1699, 
_ accompanied by one of her daughters. The place of her 
destination was Dutch Guiana, often called Surinam, from 
a river of that name, on which the capital, Paramaribo, is 
situated, and lying between the fourth and sixth degrees of 
north latitude. In this fruitful region her ardent curiosity 
found ample means of gratification, and she remained near- 
ly two years diligently employed in collecting and painting 
insects. She returned to Europe, and gave those splendid 
paintings to the public in 1705, in a work entitled “ Meta- 
morphosis Insectorum Surinamenisum, ete., the text drawn up 
by Gaspar Commelin, from the manuscripts of the author.” 
This heroic and industrious female naturalist, who has 
contributed so much to the improvement and embellishment 
of the Natural History of Insects, died in the year 1717, at 
the advanced age of seventy years. 
