Born on April 2 1647 in Germany, Maria dedicated her life to the study and depiction of the metamorphosis of insects. She studied plants and insects and made elaborated paintings about them. Her detailed observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly laid the foundation for modern entomology.
The Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (The Metamorphoses of the Insects of Suriname) which depicted the life cycles of insects she had studied. It was published in 1705, 10 years before she suffered a stroke and was partially paralysed. She died two years later. Her daughter published a collection of her work.