Seasonal abundance and diversity of spiders in mango ecosystem.
Guruprasad H., Reddy K. M. S.
Author Affiliation: Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore 560 065, India.
Environment and Ecology 29 : 2028-2034
Abstract : Studies carried out in two locations at Bangalore revealed 15 species of spiders, belonging to 11 genera and 5 families. The highest number of species was represented by Araneidae (6), Salticidae (4) followed by Metidae (2), Oxyopidae (2) and Lycosidae (1). The population of these spiders was maximum during first fortnight of December, that coincided with peak population of insect pests and gradually decreased towards end of March. The total spider population showed significantly negative correlation with mean maximum temperature and sunshine hours and highly positive correlation with mean relative humidity and total pest population. The species richness was low during second fortnight of January, while it was maximum during October, November and in the second fortnight of December. Simpson's index (?) of spider species diversity was low during first fortnight of January, while the maximum was observed during first fortnight of December. Taxonomic similarity of spider species was found to be highest between Height 2-Height 3 (H2-H3) followed by Height 1-Height 3 (H1-H3).