Life table studies of some spiders from Western Ghats

Abstract

© Zoo Outreach Organisation; www.zoosprint.org Manuscript 1354; Received 21 April 2005; Revised received 22 September 2005; Finally accepted 28 February 2006; Date of publication 21 May 2006 2296 June 2006 | ISSN 0973-2535 (Print edition); 0973-2551 (Online edition) The rich species diversity in Western Ghats offers several benefits to mankind in terms of medicinal value and gene pools. There are more than 30,000 species of spiders under 3000 genera and 105 families have been recognized all over the world. They are important predatory organisms in all ecosystems they inhabit, with a high prey finding ability and capacity to consume greater number of prey than any other predator. They are the only class of arthropods that are entirely predaceous (Kamal et al., 1990). They feed on a variety of organisms such as insects, small mice, bats, fish, crabs, frogs, lizards, snakes and scorpions. Thus, spiders help maintain the biotic balance of nature. Despite this importance, the role of spiders in the management of pest populations has only been lately recognised and scant attention is given to them as pest control agents in India. Though, several studies have been made on spiders, most of them were limited to the investigation of the species composition and their seasonal occurrence in the field.