Dürer's Rhinoceros and the prey of Eresus cinnaberinus (OLIVIER) (Araneae: Eresidae)
DÜRERs Nashorn und die Nahrung von Eresus cinnaberinus (OLIVIER) (Araneae: Eresidae)
- The first rhinoceros of the post-roman era reached Europe in 1513. Albrecht DÜRER, who had not seen the animal himself, made a woodcut that contained several odd features. This woodcut determined the appearance of rhinoceroses for the next two centuries. - The first reports on the food of Eresus sp., citing tiger beetles and dung-beetles as principal prey items, had a somewhat similar fate, i. e. they were accepted as facts for more than half a century. - The present study, performed in Valais, Switzerland, shows E. cinnaberinus to have a much broader prey spectrum: Beetles, half of them carabids, constituted 42 %, ants 36 %, other insects 17 %; 3 % were made up by arthropods other than insects. No tiger beetles or dung-beetles were found. - It can be concluded that even numerous repetitions in textbooks may not reflect the true story.
Deutsches Urheberrecht