Spider Fauna of Navdanya Biodiversity Farm, Uttarakhand, India

Pooja A. Anil Kumar; Shazia Quasin; Sree Lekshmi; Virendra Prasad Uniyal

doi:10.36808/if/2019/v145i4/145154

Spider Fauna of Navdanya Biodiversity Farm, Uttarakhand, India

Authors

Pooja A. Anil Kumar Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Tambaram East, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Shazia Quasin Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Tambaram East, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Sree Lekshmi Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune, Maharahtra
Virendra Prasad Uniyal Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2019/v145i4/145154

Keywords:

Spider, Diversity, Navdanya, Farm, Guild.

Abstract

Spiders are abundant in most terrestrial ecosystems forming one of the dominant macro-invertebrate predator groups. They are sensitive to a wide range of environmental factors including topography, season and other microhabitat factors. Considering their role in the ecosystem, in the present study, we attempted to investigate the diversity and composition of the spiders in Navdanya Biodiversity Farm, Uttarakhand, India. The habitat types that were selected for sampling are mango farm, herbal garden and other crop fields such as brinjal, tomato etc. Sampling was carried out in the month of June 2016. Spider specimens were collected randomly by using five semi quantitative techniques viz., ground hand collection, aerial hand collection, sweep netting, litter sampling and beating method. A total of 112 spider specimens representing 52 species coming under 33 genera belonging to 14 families were collected from Navdanya farm. Salticidae was the dominant family. High generic diversity was found in Salticidae reporting 9 genera. Oxyopes species were active in controlling insects that could be potential pests. A total of 7 feeding guilds were identified by the analysis of feeding behaviour of collected spiders. This study is also the first documentation of the spider fauna in Navdanya Biodiversity Farm, Uttarakhand, India.

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