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There is something distinctly different about the Google doodle today. It’s not an interactive one, but has a variety of insects like a wasp, butterfly in various stages of its metamorphosis and a chameleon on some leaves of a tree.
The search engine major has actually come up with a doodle honouring German naturalist and scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian. This will be her 336th birth anniversary.
All the insects displayed in the doodle were some of the subjects she specialised in.
Merian was one of the first illustrators who scientifically studied plants and insects thereby creating a set of detailed paintings and drawings of insects and plants.
Her detailed observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of a butterfly make her a significant contributor towards entomology.
Born in 1647 in Frankfurt (Germany), Merian's father expired when she was three. Her mother re-married and it was Merian's step father, Jacob Marrel, who encouraged her to take up painting. At 13 Merian painted her first drawings of insects and plants.
Her first book, Neues Blumenbuch (New Book of Flowers) appeared in a volume of three between 1675 and 1680.
She also began the study of insects especially butterflies and caterpillars. She studied the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies and took detailed notes on the subject. In 1679, her second book Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (The Caterpillar's Marvellous Transformation and The Strange Floral Food) arrived. In this book she presented the stages of different species of butterflies and the different plants they fed on.
In 1715 she suffered from stroke that led to her partial paralysis. She died two years later at Amsterdam.
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