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Half height banner for Maria Merian exhibition, showing a butterfly
This exhibition is in the past. View our current exhibitions.
MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN (1647-1717)

Branch of Guava tree with Army Ants, Pink-Toe Tarantulas, Huntsman Spiders, and Ruby-Topaz Hummingbird

1702-03

RCIN 921172

Merian carefully studied the behaviours of each of the animals she depicted, noting that ants ‘can eat whole trees bare as a broom handle in a single night’. Her depiction of the tarantula attacking the hummingbird continues to generate debate and may be the basis for the belief that these spiders eat birds.

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