Maria Sibylla Merian — Der rupsen begin, voedzel en wonderbaare verandering (1712)

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Plum Blossom.

Prunus florens Flowering Plum.

I found these green caterpillars with black stripes and a black head at the beginning of May on this tree. When they are touched, they let themselves down on a little thread from their mouth, by which they also know how to move back up again. They spend most of their time in a leaf that they have rolled shut; when they go out of it and have eaten their fill, they walk with great speed back into their leaf, in which they also make a cocoon and transform into a small pupa. I have found that owlet-moths came out of them, whose fore-body is light brown, and the rear portion and upper wings are white.

Below lies a light-yellow maggot that I found in the excrement of worms, which in three days transformed into a brown barrel-shaped pupa. After fourteen days, such a fly came out of it as is shown below.

At the top of a green leaf, a green caterpillar is shown. When they are disturbed, they lower themselves on a thread, and by it, they also know how to move back up. I fed them with these leaves until the 12th of June, when they transformed into a yellow pupa. On the 26th of July, such a black fly came out of it, as is likewise depicted on a leaf.