Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.12610

    Life cycle of a fly

    Date
    1669
    Creator
    Jan Swammerdam (1637 - 1680, Dutch) , Biologist
    Creator - Organisation
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (plate): 277mm
    width (plate): 178mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Zoology
          > Ichthyology
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
          > insect
    Description
    Entomological study of the life cycle of a fly. 13 figures showing the stages of metamorphosis from egg (figure I-II), to larvae (figure III-V), to pupa (figure V), to adult fly (figure VI).

    Inscribed ‘TAB XI QUARTUS ORDO. Nympha vermiforms. Wurm gelyk popken.’

    Plate 11 from Historia insectorum generalis by Jan Swammerdam published by Meinardus van Dreunen (Utrecht, 1669).

    Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. He continued Robert Hooke’s observations of insects in more systematic research which employed a single lens microscope. From the late 1660s, he dissected and studied the development of these creatures, noting their internal organs and methods of reproduction – he concluded that insects were not the product of spontaneous generation.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Netherlands
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