Spiders Collected from Peanuts and Non-Agricultural Habitats in the Texas West Cross-Timbers

Abstract

The spider fauna of peanut fields in Erath and Comanche counties in the Texas West Cross-Timbers region was sampled during 1981-83. A total of 134 species comprising 79 gen- era and 18 families was collected. The Salticidae had the greatest diversity with 22 species. The families Araneidae, Clubionidae, Dictynidae, Gnaphosidae, Linyphiidae, Lycosidae, Philodromi- dae, Theridiidae and Thomisidae were also species-rich. Spider collections from habitats other than peanut fields added another 138 species, making a total of 272 species and 129 genera belong- ing to 28 families. Twenty-four species and one family (Zoridae) are new records for Texas. Recent studies by Whitcomb et al. (1963) and Leigh and Hunter (1969) in cotton; Bailey and Chada (1968) in sorghum; Negm et al. (1969) in sugar- cane; Howell and Pienkowski (1971), Wheeler (1973), and Yeargan and Dondale (1974) in alfalfa; and LeSar and Unzicker (1978) in soybeans dem- onstrated the high diversity of spiders in agroecosytems. There were no pre- vious studies of spiders in peanut fields, but the spider fauna of Texas has received attention from several workers. Vogel (1970) listed 574 species known to occur in Texas. With some reductions due to synonomy and recent additions in the literature due to revisions and checklists, the number known from the state prior to this study was about 782. The large number of species is due to the diverse flora, geology and climatic conditions in Texas. Published lists of Texas spiders include Jones (1936) for species from Dallas, Reddell (1965) for cave spiders, Carpenter (1972) for the salticids of Wichita Co., Brown (1974) for species from Nacogdoches, and Cokendolpher et al. (1979) for north central Texas crab spiders. A few workers made collections in field crops. Woods and Harrel (1976)