Ele Willoughby, PhD<p>Happy birthday <a href="https://spore.social/tags/entomologist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>entomologist</span></a> &amp; scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)! Her stepdad Jacob Marrel &amp; students trained her as an artist. She began painting insects &amp; plants by 13. She wrote, “I spent my time investigating insects. [...] I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed”.⁠ 🧵<br>⁠<br><a href="https://spore.social/tags/printmaking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>printmaking</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/linocut" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>linocut</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/sciart" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciart</span></a> <a href="https://spore.social/tags/MastoArt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MastoArt</span></a></p>