Abstract
The present study was an attempt to assess and evaluate the distribution, diversity and occurrence of spider community in Gulmarg Wildlife Sanctuary. India has 59 of the 110 spider families and at least, 1442 formally described species of the 39,000 known worldwide. Documenting spider assemblages assumes greater importance in the context of current rate of loss and degradation of forests which is known to have detrimental effect on many invertebrate groups. In order to assess the diversity and distribution of spiders at four sites during the months of May, June, July, October and December 2012, standard protocol was used to collect the spider community across the study area. The spider community was found to be represented by 18 taxa. Araneidae was dominant family followed by Lycosidae, Linyphiidae, Pholcidae, Salticidae, Sparassidae and Clubionidae. Differences in vegetation cover or human use showed variation in diversity and composition of spiders between different sites. Forest sites showed relatively higher diversity as compared to meadow sites. Key words: Spider community, diversity, Araneidae, Gulmarg.
Highlights
Spiders form a diverse group of invertebrates in varied ecosystems and are known to be sensitive indicators of environmental change (Hodge and Vink, 2010)
Spiders, which globally include about 42,055 described species (Platnick, 2011), are estimated to be about 60,000-170,000 species (Coddington and Levi, 1991). They include a significant portion of the terrestrial arthropod diversity, being one of the dominant macro invertebrate predator groups in terrestrial environments (35 - 95%) (Specht and Dondale, 1960; Van Hook, 1971; Moulder and Reichle, 1972; Edwards et al, 1976)
Spider community of the study area was found to be represented by 18 genera belonging to order Araneae
Summary
Spiders form a diverse group of invertebrates in varied ecosystems and are known to be sensitive indicators of environmental change (Hodge and Vink, 2010). In order to assess the diversity and distribution of spiders at four sites during the months of May, June, July, October and December 2012, standard protocol was used to collect the spider community across the study area. The population densities and species abundance of spider communities in agricultural fields can be as high as that in natural ecosystems (Riechert, 1981).
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