Available online at www.worldscientificnews.com WSN 71 (2017) 78-104 EISSN 2392-2192 Spider Fauna of Meghalaya, India Tapan Kumar Roy1,a, Sumana Saha2,b and Dinendra Raychaudhuri1,c 1Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, IRDM Faculty Centre, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Narendrapur, Kolkata - 700103, India 2Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Barasat Govt. College, Barasat, Kolkata – 700124, India a,b,cE-mails:
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[email protected] ABSTRACT The present study is on the spider fauna of Nongkhylem Wildlife Sanctuary (NWS), Sohra (Cherrapunji) [included within East Khasi Hill District], Umsning (Ri Bhoi District) and their surrounding tea estates (Anderson Tea Estate, Byrnihat Tea Estate and Meg Tea Estate) of Meghalaya, India. A total of 55 species belonging to 36 genera and 13 families are sampled. Newly recorded taxa include four genera and 11 species of Araneidae, six genera of Araneidae, each represented by single species. The species recorded under Tylorida Simon and Tetragnatha Latreille of Tetragnathidae and Camaricus Thorell and Thomisus Walckenaer of Thomisidae are found to be new from the state. Also, three oxyopids and one miagrammopid are new. So far, Linyphiidae, Pisauridae, Sparassidae and Theridiidae were unknown from the state. Out of 55 species, 13 are endemic to India and thus exhibiting a high endemicity (23.6%). A family key of the State Fauna is provided along with relevant images of the newly recorded species. Keywords: Spiders, New Records, Endemicity, Nongkhylem Wildlife Sanctuary, Sohra; Umsning, Tea Ecosystem, Meghalaya, Tylorida, Tetragnatha, Tetragnathidae, Camaricus, Thomisus, Thomisidae, Linyphiidae, Pisauridae, Sparassidae, Theridiidae, Araneidae ( Received 05 April 2017; Accepted 01 May 2017; Date of Publication 03 May 2017 ) World Scientific News 71 (2017) 78-104 1.