In his article 'The Pleasure of Describing', Brian Ogilvie notes that 'In the fall of 1727, on a journey to Amsterdam, he fell ill in Hamburg; during his convalescence, he happened upon a copy of Maria Sibylla Merian's folio volume The Metamorphasis of the Insects of Surinam.

As Rösel later told the story, Merian's stunning, hand-coloured engravings filled him with a desire to devote himself to studying and illustrating the insect world. Like other conversion narratives, Rösel's story of sudden enlightenment is open to question... Rösel hiself wrote [in his Insect Entertainment] that "from my youth I found enjoyment in insects, and paid close attention to the differences between caterpillars." Merian's book may ony have catalyzed a decision that was long in the making, but its effects were clear: Rösel gave up his voyage to Amsterdam and returned instead to Nuremberg, where he settled on his plan to produce the Insect Entertainment.' (79)