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Half height banner for Maria Merian exhibition, showing a butterfly
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MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN (1647-1717)

Branch of a Fig with Sphinx Moths

1702-03

RCIN 921189

The Fig Sphinx Moth caterpillar can change colour before becoming a deep red chrysalis, and Merian shows both in her illustration. The moth in flight is a Fig Sphinx Moth (Pachylia ficus) while that shown resting is another from the Sphinx Moth family. Carolus Linnaeus used Merian’s depictions to classify the Sphinx Moth family in his System of Nature.

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