Occurrence and Abundance of Spiders in Various Agricultural Formations at Sohag Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

An update of the spider species associated with the most cultivated crops in Shandaweel district, Sohag Governorate, Egypt, with a focus on spider’s incidence in dominant and stable habitats in the district; weeds, hlafa grass, citrus trees and ornamental plants during 2016 and 2017 years were illustrated. 18 families, 27 genera and 21 species were identified from 951 individuals (471 males & 480 females) and 2057 immature with total numbers of 3003 individuals during the study period. Salticidae, Cheiracanthiidae and Dictynidae families were the most dominant with frequency percentage of 38.86%, 11.52 % and 10.86 % respectively. Some families identified to genus or family level only like Oecobiidae, Oxyopidae, Pisauridae and Tetragnathidae. This study was also conducted to estimate the population fluctuation of spider families in Sohag Governorate over the two successive years, 2016 and 2017. The spider families reached the highest peaks on weeds in June by 115 and 116 individuals during 2016 and 2017 years respectively, on Citrus in February by 93 and 31 individuals during 2016 and 2017 respectively, on Halfa grass in 2016 November by 99 individuals and in 2017 August by 50 individuals, finally on ornamental plants in 2016 September by 90 individuals and on July 2017 by 134 individuals. Fifteen species were recorded as a new locality record from Sohag Governorate. These species were Argiope lobata, Neoscona subfusca, Nigma conducens, Poecilochroa pugnax, Sengletus extricatus, Plexippus paykulli, Euryopis episinoides, Kochiura aulica, Steatoda erigoniformis, Theridion incanescens, Theridion melanostictum, Theridion spinitarse, Runcinia grammica, Thomisus spinifer and Uloborus walckenaerius.