Pierre Lyonnet

Lyonnet, detail of an oil painting by Hendrik van Limborch, 1742; in a private collectionCourtesy of the Iconographisch Bureau, The Hague

Pierre Lyonnet, also called Pieter Lyonet    (born July 22, 1708Maastricht, Neth.—died Oct. 10, 1789The Hague), Dutch naturalist and engraver famed for his skillful dissections and illustrations of insect anatomy.

Trained as an attorney, Lyonnet was a respected biologist and spent most of his time engraving objects of natural history. He made the drawings for Friedrich Christian Lesser’s Théologie des Insectes (1742; “Theology of Insects”) and for Abraham Trembley’s treatise on fresh-water polyps (1744).

His monograph on the anatomy of the goat-moth caterpillar, Traité anatomique de la Chenille, qui ronge le bois de Saule (1760), is one of the most beautifully illustrated works on anatomy ever published. His drawings, engraved on copper plates, distinguished more than 4,000 separate muscles and showed details of nerves and tracheae never before recorded. The publication of his work caused a sensation, bringing charges of embellishment and the use of fanciful detail. In the second edition (1762) he replied to his critics by supplying drawings of his instruments and a description of his methods.