Abstract
The scarce and biased knowledge about the diversity and distribution of Araneae species in the Iberian Peninsula is accentuated in poorly known habitats such as the Mesovoid Shallow Substratum (MSS). The aim of this study was to characterize the spiders inventory of the colluvial MSS of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, and to assess the importance of this habitat for the conservation of the taxon.Thirty-three localities were selected across the high peaks of the Guadarrama mountain range and they were sampled for a year using subterranean traps specially designed to capture arthropods in the MSS. Species accumulation curves were built both for the observed species richness and for the non-parametric richness estimators. The literature was reviewed in order to update the distributional maps of the rarest species.Forty-two species were collected, of which four were species new to science. More than half were represented by one or two individuals which caused the accumulation curves to rise slowly and to end without reaching an asymptote. Almost half of the species showed significant increases in their Iberian distribution ranges. Two species were recorded for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula and 32 species were new additions to the spider checklist of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park.
Highlights
The Mesovoid Shallow Substratum (MSS) is a subterranean habitat originally described by Juberthie et al (1980, 1981) and Uéno (1980, 1981) as the network of voids and interstices found just above the deep subterranean domain and immediately beneath the soil
On the contrary, when the number of specimens is taken into account the relevance of the taxon decreases (e.g., Jiménez-Valverde et al 2015)
This occurs because spider assemblages in the MSS tend to be very uneven and are mostly represented by only a few abundant species and a high number of extremely rare species
Summary
The Mesovoid Shallow Substratum (MSS) is a subterranean habitat originally described by Juberthie et al (1980, 1981) and Uéno (1980, 1981) as the network of voids and interstices found just above the deep subterranean domain and immediately beneath the soil (if soil exists). The MSS, by virtue of its biophysical characteristics, plays a fundamental ecological role as an ecotone between the surface and the deep subterranean environment (Moseley 2010), as well as serving as a biogeographic corridor and climatic refuge (Ortuño et al 2013; Moseley 2010; Růžička 1993; Hernando et al 1999; Růžička et al 2012). All of these roles have obvious important implications in conservation
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