The Great Getty Bug Hunt

[typing sounds and distant phones ringing]
Cody: Oh! Man, those scared me.
Jessie: Sorry, Cody. They're just plastic, but I think they make the place feel more alive.
Cody: Cool, like the still life painters.
Jessie: Oh, right. Yeah. Some artists like to add bugs to their paintings.
Cody: Yeah. Like you, they wanted to make their pieces feel more alive. Cool.
Jessie: Huh. Yeah, I never thought about it like that. That is such a creative detail. And now I just wanna find all the bugs in the museum.
[ding sound]
I have an idea! Time for a great Getty bug hunt.
[upbeat music]
Jessie: Okay, I've got everything I need to record my observations. A dragonfly, a butterfly and a bee! May-bee it's going to collect pollen from that flower to take back to the hive. Is that wasp about to dig a hole and burrow into the fruit for the sugar inside? Hm. Could that bird at the top want to eat that grasshopper? Maybe this butterfly wants to drink that drop of water on the leaf. Did you know they drink from a long tongue called a proboscis? Ooh. I wonder how many leaves this hare needs to eat to survive for the day. And if that snail is worried, it'll all be gone before he gets a chance to take a bite.
Whoa.
Ivy: Hey, Jessie.
Jessie: Oh, hey, Ivy. Oh, hey! You teach a lot in the galleries.
Ivy: Mm-Hmm.
Jessie: Do you have any favorite Getty bugs?
Ivy: Mmmm, probably Merian's moths, but they're not on display right now. Do you wanna head over to the drawing room? We can check it out.
Jessie: Yeah, totally!
So who was Merian and what was so great about her moths?
Ivy: Merian was actually Maria Sibylla Merian. She was an artist from over 400 years ago.
Jessie: Whoa!
Ivy: She was an entomologist, naturalist, and scientific illustrator, but as a woman at her time period, she wasn't allowed to join any professional painter’s guild.
Jessie: Ugh. Really?
Ivy: I know, right. But she still loved to create, so she observed all the caterpillars in the gardens of wealthy families in her neighborhood.
Jessie: Oh, she's a passionate bug collector.
Ivy: Yeah.
Jessie: I like her already.
Ivy: And she didn't just collect bugs. She really observed them. At the time, caterpillars were grouped in with worms and snakes.
Jessie: Oh.
Ivy: But she kept watch and noticed how caterpillars grew this hard outer shell. In a few days or weeks later, they would actually turn into these beautiful moths and butterflies.
Jessie: Wow. Okay. So she started with her art, but then her powers of observation were so strong that it helped her make some scientific discoveries.
Ivy: Yeah, exactly.
Jessie: Whoa.
Ivy: Oh, hey, we're here.
Jessie: Oh, nice. Wow. This is so beautiful. But it's even more than just beautiful. It shows some of the lifecycle of the Small Emperor Moth. Here's the pupa, the cocoon, the moth, the caterpillar, and the baby caterpillar.
Ivy: And it's not just part of the life cycle. Merian also painted in the damson plum tree, the moth’s favorite food.
Jessie: Oh, so she's connecting the animals to the plants that they eat.
Ivy: Exactly. They're all connected.
Jessie: And she started from her own house, before she was an important scholar or had any fancy tools. She just used her own eyes to dig into the world around her.
Ivy: And she shared her observations with the world. She made hand-colored prints, published books, and even taught her daughters how to draw too.
Jessie: Well, I could see why these are some of your favorite bugs.
Ivy: Oh, definitely.
[record scratch]
Except for the real life bugs. You could find them if you keep your eyes open.
Jessie: Hmm. What really struck me about Maria Sibylla Merian is just how much she learned from observing the world around her. Now, I love reading and going to museums, but sometimes I forget what's right outside of my own door. And the thing I really love about science, it's not just how much we know, but it's how much we don't know. Like the scholars in Merian's time, they didn't know that they didn't know about chrysalises until Merian observed and recorded them. Makes me wonder, what are we missing today? What questions have we not yet answered? What might we discover using our powers of observation? Here's what I saw this afternoon. An army of ants, this awesome lizard that I definitely need to look up. I also saw the snail and this squirrel. Hi there! Tell me, what will you find? Oh!
Cody: Hey, Jessie.
Jessie: Hey!
Cody: What you looking at?
Jessie: Oh, I'm just looking at a grasshopper. It's so cute!
Jessie and Cody: Ahhh