In 1699, Maria Sibylla Merian and her daughter Dorothea set sail(启航) from Amsterdam for Suriname. Merian was 52 years old, a successful artist and pioneering(开创性的) entomologist(昆虫学家), whose book on caterpillars had demonstrated their stages of transformation from egg to butterfly. Her nearly two years in South America resulted in a volume on the metamorphosis of Surinamese insects that made her Europe’s preeminent(最杰出的) female biologist for a time(一度，暂时). The book also provided some of the most captivating(迷人的) images in natural history.
1699年，玛丽亚·西比拉·梅里安和女儿多萝西娅从阿姆斯特丹启航前往苏里南。梅里安时年52岁，是一位成功的艺术家和开创性的昆虫学家，她关于毛毛虫的著作展示了它们从卵到蝴蝶的各个变态阶段。她在南美洲的近两年时光孕育出一部关于苏里南昆虫变态的巨著，一度使她成为欧洲最杰出的女性生物学家。这本书也为自然史留下了一些最迷人的图像。
Earlier artists had depicted various specimens(标本), in isolation(孤立地) and usually dead, but Merian tells stories about life. Butterflies appear alongside their caterpillars and chrysalises(蛹); ants crawl up and down the leaves they’ve decimated(大量毁坏); flying cockroaches besiege(围攻) a pineapple. By showing an animal in its natural context and in multiple forms, Merian pioneered an approach that we now take for granted(认为理所当然). Her work introduced many new creatures to European readers, and was later a vital resource for the great taxonomist(分类学家) Carl Linnaeus(卡尔·林奈，瑞典植物学家，分类学奠基人) in designating species.
更早的艺术家描绘过各种标本，它们被孤立地呈现，而且通常是死的，但梅里安讲述的是关于生命的故事。蝴蝶与它们的毛毛虫和蛹一同出现；蚂蚁在被它们啃光的叶子上爬上爬下；飞行的蟑螂围攻一只菠萝。通过展示动物所处的自然环境和多种形态，梅里安开创了一种我们今天习以为常的方法。她的作品向欧洲读者介绍了许多新生物，后来也成为伟大的分类学家卡尔·林奈在指定物种时的重要参考。
In Suriname, she and Dorothea brought that same observational precision and curiosity to bear on mammals, amphibians, and reptiles, such as the meter-long tegu lizard. The tegu lifespan is too extended for Merian to have fully observed it from egg to senescence.(泰加蜥的寿命太长，梅里安无法从卵一直观察到衰老。) But she composed an image that manages to convey the lizard’s scale (it barely fits on the page) and speed (caught mid-motion), along with minute(微小的) details of its appearance (every scale has its own shape and pattern). Anatomical accuracy did not preclude a fabulous S-shaped calligraphic flourish of tail, a bit of squiggly biological extravagance that invites us to wonder at the real world.(解剖学上的精确并没有妨碍她画出一条美妙的S形书法式尾巴——一丝蜿蜒的生物学的华丽，邀请我们去惊叹真实世界。)
在苏里南，她和多萝西娅将同样敏锐的观察力和好奇心用于哺乳动物、两栖动物和爬行动物，比如一米长的泰加蜥。泰加蜥的寿命太长，梅里安无法从卵一直观察到衰老。但她创作了一幅图像，成功传达了蜥蜴的体型（它几乎装不下页面）和速度（被定格在运动之中），以及它外表的微小细节（每一片鳞片都有自己的形状和图案）。解剖学上的精确并没有妨碍她画出一条美妙的S形书法式尾巴——一丝蜿蜒的生物学的华丽，邀请我们去惊叹真实世界。