What may be regarded as the prototype for several versions of the present composition, including the Morgan drawing, is in the Albertina, Vienna (Inv. no. 3817). That drawing, which repeats the same motifs, except the daddy-long-legs (which is omitted) and ants (which are fewer), is signed at the lower right, Johanna Herolt in Amster [i.e. Amsterdam].
Formerly attributed to Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717).
Inscribed at upper right, in graphite, "55". On the verso, at lower center edge, in graphite, "1416".
Merian, Maria Sibylla, 1647-1717, Formerly attributed to.
Astor, Vincent, Mrs., donor.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Seventeenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1972-1974. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1976, p. 173.
Flowers in Books and Drawings, 1375-1825. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1980, no. 87, repr. (as Maria Sibylla Merian).
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 380.