Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717) was a German-born Swiss naturalist and scientific illustrator, whose documented evidence on the process of metamorphosis and the plant hosts of 186 European insect species, discovered many new facts about insect life that disproved the prevailing thought of the time, that insects were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation.