Biodiversity of Spiders in Different Habitats of Western Haryana, India

Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2017; 5(4): 822-825

Vinay Malik Vinay Malik and Vivek Goyal Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, Abstract India The biodiversity study of spiders was carried out from Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar districts of Western Haryana, India from May 2015 to June 2016. In total 45 species, belonging to 29 genera, from 12 Vivek Goyal families were identified, accounting 2.6% of Indian spider species, 6.6% of Indian spider genera and 20% Research Scholar Department of of Indian spider families on the basis of distinguishing morphological characters and structure of the Zoology, M. D. U., Rohtak, genitalia. The spiders were collected and identified from different habitats, in all seasons, during the Haryana, India study period. The dominant families were Salticidae (10 sp), Araneidae (7 sp) and Thomisidae (6 sp). According to guild structure ground runners, orb weavers, stalkers, ambushers and sheet web weavers spiders were revealed. This preliminary study gives base line information about the spider’s diversity from unexplored Western Haryana.

Keywords: Spider, Biodiversity, Western Haryana, India

Introduction Spiders belong to order Araneae of the class Arachnida, which is one of the largest order in the animal kingdom and is quite rich in species diversity [1]. The body of a spider is divided in to anterior cephalothorax and posterior abdomen, connected through a stalk called pedicel. The

possession of the silk producing organ, the spinneret, on the ventral side of the abdomen [2] makes spiders unique among Arachnids . While the presence of eight legs and chelicerae/fangs differentiate them from class Insecta whose members have six legs and mandibles. Spiders are ubiquitous, carnivorous, polyphagous terrestrial arthropods inhabiting different [3] habitats . They are non-specific predators as evident from the different types of captured preys in their webs or in their possessions. The spiders are even not specific for the life stages of their preys [4]. They may feed on adults, sub-adults, nymphs and even caterpillars though feeding on eggs is not observed yet [5]. This quality makes them most suitable potential biocontrol agents for regulating the population of insect pests in different agro-ecosystems and [6-8] necessitates their extensive study . According to the latest version of World Spider Catalogue ver. 18 there are approximately 46777 species belonging to 4057 genera in 112 families. Tikader documented first comprehensive list of Indian spiders which was having 1067 spiders in 43 families belonging to 249 genera [9]. Later Siliwal et al. listed 1442 spider species under 361 genera belonging to

59 families while Sebastian and Peter described 1520 spider species under 377 genera [10, 11] belonging to 60 families from India . Recently a total of 1686 species of spiders in 60 families belonging to 438 genera were listed in the checklist of Indian spiders by Keswani et al [12]. The comparison of the above, last two documented comprehensive lists from India suggest reporting of 166 new species of spiders in a short span of three years. This encouraged the

arachnologists, for fresh intensive studies in India and neighbouring countries to explore spider diversity. Spider fauna in Haryana is poorly explored and understood, except a few records by Arora and Correspondence Monga there are no taxonomic record of spiders from Haryana, reflecting it approximately an Vinay Malik unexplored area [13, 14]. The present study aimed to investigate the spider faunal diversity in the Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Maharshi Dayanand Western Haryana. Its result will form a base, for further exploration of the spider fauna in rest University, Rohtak, Haryana, of Haryana which is largely neglected so far. India

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Materials and Methods Spiders from Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar districts of the Study Area Western Haryana were collected from May 2015 to June The three districts i.e. Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar of Western 2016. Surveys were conducted every fortnightly to capture the Haryana (29°31'17.9"N 75°26'47.8"E) with an average height spiders from the different habitats such as buildings, aquatic of 200 mt. above the sea level were chosen for the present habitat (near the village ponds and rivers), cultivated fields study (Fig 1). Average rainfall is between 350mm to 450mm, and parks in different seasons. A survey was conducted in the with most of the rains during monsoon season. The Western early hours from 5 am to 9 am or at night for nocturnal Haryana has arid and semi-arid type of habitat. The vegetation spiders. The various methods used to capture the spiders were is mostly of the xerophytic type because of less rain. The sweep net, bush beating, pitfall trap and visual searching. temperature ranges from as low as 4 0C in winters to a high of Spider collection and preservation methodology was followed 48 0C in summers. Geographically it is a rich area for diverse according to Tikader [9]. Spiders were preserved in rectified flora and fauna with wheat, rice and cotton as main crops. spirit with a few drops of glycerin in collection vials. Spiders were identified under Stereo-zoom microscope following standard taxonomic keys provided by Tikader [15-17], Tikader and Malhotra [18]; Barrion and Litsinger [19], Jocque and Dippenaar – Schoeman [20], Gajbe [21] and Sebastian and peter [11]. A monograph of Salticidae (Araneae) of the World 1995- 2011 by Proszynski was consulted regarding jumping spiders [22, 23]. The latest nomenclature of the identified species is based on the World Spider Catalog (2017) [24]. All the specimens were deposited in the museum of the department of Zoology, M. D. University, Rohtak, Haryana.

Results and Discussion A total of 45 species, belonging to 29 genera, under 12 families were identified from Western Haryana on the basis of distinguishing morphological characters and structure of the genitalia Table 1. This represents 20%, 6.6%, 2.6% of the Fig 1: Location of Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar districts of Western total families, genera and species respectively of India as Haryana reported by Keswani et al [12].

Table 1: Checklist of spiders of Western Haryana, India.

Family Araneidae Simon, 1895 Family Salticidae Blackwall, 1841 1. Cyrtophora citricola (Forsskål, 1775) 21. Epocilla calcarata (Karsch, 1880) 2. Neoscona bihumpi Patel, 1988 22. Epocilla aurantiaca (Simon, 1885) 3. Eriovixia excelsa (Simon, 1889) 23. Marpissa tigrina Tikader, 1965 4. Neoscona mukerjei Tikader, 1980 24. Menemerus bivittatus (Dufour, 1831) 5. Neoscona theisi (Walckenaer, 1841) 25. Myrmarachne plataleiodes (O. P.-cambridge, 1869) 6. Neoscona vigilans (Blackwall, 1865) 26. Plexipus paykulli (Audouin, 1826) 7. Zygiella indica Tikader & Bal, 1980 27. Pseudicius ludhianensis (Tikader, 1974) Family Gnaphosidae Pocock, 1898 28. Rhene danieli Tikader, 1973 8. Zelotes nainitalensis Tikader & Gajbe, 1976 29. Salticus scenicus (Clerck, 1757) Family Hersiliidae Thorell, 1870 30. Thyene imperialis (Rossi, 1846) 9. Hersilia orvakalensis Javed et al., 2010 Family Scytodidae Blackwall, 1864 10. Hersilia savignyi Lucas, 1836 31. Scytodes fusca Walckenaer, 1837 Family Lycosidae Sundevall, 1833 32. Scytodes pallida Doleschall, 1859 11. Lycosa mackenziei Gravely, 1924 33. Scytodes thoracica (Latreille, 1802) 12. Pardosa sumatrana (Thorell, 1890) Family Tetragnathidae Menge, 1866 13. Pardosa birmanica Simon, 1884 34. Leucauge decorata (Blackwall, 1864) Family Oxyopidae Thorell, 1870 35. Tetragnatha mandibulata Walckenaer, 1841 14. Oxyopes sp1 Family Thomisidae Sundevall, 1833 15. Oxyopes sp2 36. Diaea evanida (L. Koch, 1867) 16. Oxyopes sp3 37. Runcinia cherapunjea Simon, 1897 17. Oxyopes pankaji Gajbe & Gajbe, 2000 38. Runcinia roonwali Tikader, 1965 Family Oecobiidae Blackwall, 1862 39. Thomisus pooneus Tikader, 1965 18. Oecobius navus Blackwall, 1859 40. Thomisus projectus Tikader, 1960 Family Pholcidae C. L. Koch, 1851 41. Thomisus shivajiensis Tikader, 1965 19. Artema atlanta Walckenaer, 1837 Family Uloboridae Thorell, 1869 20. Crossopriza lyoni (Blackwall, 1867) 42. Uloborus danolius Tikader, 1969 43. Uloborus krishnae Tikader, 1970 44. Uloborus plumpins Lucas, 1846 45. Zosis genticulata Olivier,1789

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Salticidae was the most dominant family constituting 10 Gnaphosidae and Oecobiidae (1 sp, each with least species species from 9 genera followed by Araneidae with 7 species diversity). from 4 genera. While spider species observed in other The generic diversity was found maximum in Salticidae (9) families were Thomisidae (6 sp), Oxyopidae and Uloboridae followed by Araneidae (4) and Thomisidae (3). Salticidae (4 sp, each), Lycosidae and Scytodidae (3 sp, each), represented 23% of the total spider species collected followed Hersiliidae, Pholcidae and Tetragnathidae (2 sp, each) by Araneidae (16%) and Thomisidae (13%) Table 2.

Table 2: Total number of families, genera, species with percentage and guilds

Family No. of genera No. of species % of species Guild 1 Araneidae 4 7 16 Orb Weavers 2 Gnaphosidae 1 1 2 Ground Runners 3 Hersiliidae 1 2 4 Ambushers 4 Lycosidae 2 3 7 Ground Runners 5 Oxyopidae 1 4 9 Stalkers 6 Oecobiidae 1 1 2 Ground Runners 7 Pholcidae 2 2 4 Sheet Web Weavers 8 Salticidae 9 10 23 Stalkers 9 Scytodidae 1 3 7 Ground Runners 10 Tetragnathidae 2 2 4 Orb Weavers 11 Thomisidae 3 6 13 Ambushers 12 Uloboridae 2 4 9 Orb Weavers

Many earlier reports have also suggested the similar results as that of this study documenting the dominance of the above said three families from different parts of India viz: Sebastian et al. [25], Dey et al. [26], Deshmukh and Raut [27], More [28], Sawane [29], Prajapati et al. [30], Vaibhav et al. [31], Dharmaraj et al [32]. Das et al. and Gupta and Siliwal also observed Salticidae, Araneidae and Thomisidae as the most dominant families among all the reported families from Guwahati Metropolitan area of Kamrup, Assam and Wildlife Institute of Dehradun, Uttarakhand respectively [33, 34]. However Usman et al. documented Lycosidae as the most dominant family and Salticidae among the least dominant families from North West regions of Karak in Pakistan suggesting an entirely

different result, which may be due to the variation in habitats Fig 2: Guild structure of spiders recorded from Western Haryana [35] and climatic conditions of the area . The spiders of Western Haryana can also be divided into five It was also observed that the cultivated lands (11) and parks guilds according to their foraging styles. They were ground (10) hosted the maximum number of spider families due to runners, orb weavers, stalkers, ambushers and sheet web availability of prey, aquatic habitats (5) while the buildings weavers. The dominant guild was of stalkers 14 sp (31%) (4) hosted the least Table 3. followed by orb weavers 13 sp (29%), ground runners and ambushers with 8 sp each (18%) and least guild was sheet web weavers 2 sp (4%) Table 2 and Fig. 2.

Table 3: Distribution of spider families in different habitats within the study area.

Habitats Families Total Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, Uloboridae, Lycosidae, Oxyopidae Salticidae, Cultivated lands 11 Gnaphosidae, Scytodidae, Thomisidae, Hersilidae, Pholicidae Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, Uloboridae, Lycosidae, Oxyopidae Salticidae, Parks 10 Gnaphosidae, Scytodidae, Thomisidae, Hersilidae, Buildings Pholicidae, Oecobiidae, Lycosidae Salticidae, 4 Aquatic habitats Salticidae, Lycosidae, Oxyopidae, Gnaphosidae, Salticidae 5

Maximum number of diversity was observed in the months of Acknowledgement September and October. This richness may be attributed to the The authors are thankful to UGC for providing financial moist conditions of the post monsoon season and availability support for the Biodiversity studies of spiders in Western of plenty of insect preys. All the 45 spider species have been Haryana. reported earlier from India but they are recorded for the first time from the Western Haryana. This preliminary study gives References base line information of spider’s diversity and distribution in 1. Sharma S, Vyas A, Sharma R. Diversity and abundance the Western Haryana, indicating the species richness of of spider fauna of Narmada river at Rajghat (Barwani) spiders in this unexplored area. It is quite likely that further (Madhya Pradesh) India. Researcher. 2010; 2(11):1-5. detailed and intensive studies may bring out more information 2. Vaibhav PU, Vidyavati MH, Tanuja KD, Milind FN, and documentation of more spider species from Haryana. Karuna G, Veeranagoudar DK et al. Spider diversity of Karnatak University Campus, Dharwad. 2017; 2(1):12- ~ 824 ~ Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies

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