Happy birthday #entomologist & scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)! Her stepdad Jacob Marrel & students trained her as an artist. She began painting insects & 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”. 
#printmaking #linocut #sciart #MastoArt
Robber fly, genus Cerdistus, from Kolymvari, Crete, Greece. Thanks to Agapakis Georgios for the ID.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164859360
#iNaturalist #Diptera #insects #entomologist
Via the #MontrealGazette @ 3:41pm EDT on Oct 12, 2014
#McGillUniversity #entomologist #ChrisBuddle said that with winter approaching, #spiders are bigger than normal and seen more often.
The reason they're large is because they're ready to lay their eggs," he said. "Then the female spiders will die once the colder weather and the frost comes."
Buddle said that mature orb-weaver spiders are big and very noticeable this year.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/more-and-bigger-spiders-noticeable-in-montreal-this-fall-1.7072557
