Arachnids - Naturalist engraving - Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur

Reproduction engraving of: Arachnids

Original title Arachnida - Spinnentiere

Poster of Epeira - Arthropods of the class Arachnids or Arachnida

Illustration from the book Kunstformen der Natur, which is a collection of artistic lithographs of natural sciences published by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel between 1899 and 1904.

This naturalistic illustration is part of an overall style inspired by Ernst Haeckel, which greatly influenced the emerging Art Nouveau movement at the beginning of the ^20th century. This work, illustrating the impressive beauty and great diversity of the biological world, was complemented by a certain amount of scientific information, some excerpts of which are reproduced below.

This information is over 120 years old and some of it may be outdated!

Scientific classification:

 Phylum of Arthropods (Articulata)
Main class Tracheata
Class Arachnids (Arachnida)

Scientific notice (extract) accompanying the poster print of Arachnida - Arachnids :

The rich and diverse class of arachnids includes over 4,000 living species as well as many extinct species. They are the closest relatives to insects. The body of arachnids is initially divided into three main segments: the head (Caput), the thorax (Thorax), and the abdomen (Abdomen). Unlike insects, arachnids have only six pairs of legs; they lack the antennae of insects. In the most primitive arachnids, the solifugae (Solifugae), there are, like insects, three pairs of mandibles on the head: upper mandibles (Mandibulae), lower mandibles (Maxillae), and posterior mandibles (Postmaxillae). In all other arachnids, the three head segments and three thoracic rings merge into a single mass, the cephalothorax. Below this are six pairs of limbs, the first two of which are considered mandibles (upper and lower mandibles) and the next four as thoracic legs.

Species present on the naturalist board of Arachnids - Epeira :

• Tegeocranus hericius
• Tegeocranus latus
• Tegeocranus cepheiformis
• Leiosoma palmicinctum
• Phrynus reniformis
• Arkys cordiformis
• Gasteracantha cancriformis
• Gasteracantha acrosomoides
• Gasteracantha geminata
• Gasteracantha arcuata
• Acrosoma hexacanthum
• Acrosoma spinosum
• Acrosoma bifurcatum
• Oxyopes variegatus
• Epeira diadema