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STUDY OF SPIDER DIVERSITY FROM

TALUKA ,

B.M. PARMAR AND K. B. PATEL ZOOLOGY DEPARTMENT,

Universal Impact SHETH M.N.SCIENCE COLLEGE, PATAN, GUJARAT - 384265. Factor 0.9285:2012; Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected] 1.2210:2013

Index Copernicus ICV 2011: 5.09 ABSTRACT: ICV 2012: 6.42 The present study is about the Spiders diversity which was carried out in ICV 2013: 15.8 selected areas of Vadnagar Taluka, Gujarat, . The spiders have collected NAAS Rating and observe during July 2012 to May 2013, using handpicking, ground hand 2012 : 1.3; 2013-2014:2.69 collecting and aerial hand collecting methods. In this study, 75 species belonging to 51 genera spread over 19 families of order Araneae were Received on: 18th March 2015 identified. Among those spiders most individuals were adult female, juvenile and few of adult male observed. Revised on: 16th April 2015

KEY WORDS: Spiders, Diversity, Vadnagar, Gujarat Accepted on: . 19th April 2015

Published on: INTRODUCTION: 1st June 2015 The spider fauna of Gujarat State is rich and highly diverse; total 266 species, Volume No. 89 genera representing 28 families are recorded (Siliwal, 2010).There are few Online & Print 64 (2015) references on the spiders fauna of Gujarat and the few researchers; viz. Patel

et. al., 2001, 2003; Manju Saliwal et. al., 2003; Bhatt, 2008; Patel et. al., 2012 Page No. 94 to 101 &Vachhani et. al., 2012 carried out studies. Life Sciences Leaflets is an international The Vadnagar is situated in , Mahesana. This area has own open access print & e ecosystems and it consist 75 species of spider fauna. The collections of species journal, peer reviewed, worldwide abstract were done during July 2012 to May 2013 Vadnagar taluka. listed, published every month with ISSN, RNI STUDY AREA: Free- membership, The Vadnagar lies between 23° 78’71.77’’ to 23°47’06’’N Latitude and downloads and access. 72°64’78.50’’ to 72°38’24’’ E Longitude has 31,223ha area, in Gujarat state

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(India). This area is fall in semi-arid climatic zone. Having temperature 42 to 44°C in summer and lowering down to 15 to 5°C during winter months. Average rainfall becomes 600.5 mm. Moisture condition dry to humid. April and May are hottest months. July and August remains humid while other months remain dry (Patel, 2003). According to Champion and Seth (1968), the Vadnagar falls in to forest type 5/E2 (Boswellia type of forest) of North Gujarat (Patel et. al., 2010). The vegetation of vadnagar cover with Azadirachta indica, Acacia nilotica, Zizyphus mauritiana, Holeptelia integrifolia, Prosopis chilensis, etc. like trees which is dominant trees of the area. Shrub and herb species are also present. Agro-ecosystems exist at the skirt areas of the forest. Crop calendar is fixed as an agro-practice for local (Patel et. al., 2010).

METHODOLOGY: The observation of spider was made during July 2012 to May 2013 from Vadnagar taluka. Spiders are found in everywhere like on trees, foliage, in leaf folds, between branches, on flowers, under stones, logs and in rubbish and leaf litter on forest floors (Sebastian, 2009). As spiders exploit a wide variety of niches, sampling was done in order to collect representative samples from all habitats. Sampling required a combination of methods, so three different collection techniques viz., ground hand collection; aerial hand collection (Coddington, 1996) and hand picking were employed. Specimens were identified up to family, genus and species level when possible with help of taxonomic keys. The area was surveyed with majority of specimen are identified on the spot up to genus level. Samples were collected from all types of habitats by sampling methods or directly in to specimen tubes (5.2 x 2.5 cm.) with screw caps with properly labelled date, locality and other notes of importance. For detailed examination of all specimens use stereo zoom microscope (Olympus SZ51) with objective 1to 4 and eyepieces of 8x and 40x magnification were used. The samples were kept in standard glass box of 10 x 10 cm. and 6.25 x 6.25 cm. Standard references, monographs and taxonomic keys (Pocock 1900, Tikader 1980, 1982, 1987, Tikader & Biswas 1981and Platnick 2013) were used in taxonomic identification.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The diversity of spider fauna resulted in identification of 75 species belonging to 51 genera spread over 19 families of order Araneae which represent 17 % of the total families reported from world. Family diversity: The maximum numbers of species are in Araenidae (14 species) and Salticidae (13 species). Oxyopidae (8 species), Thomisidae (6 species), Sparrasidae (5 species), Lycosidae (5 species) are cover species diversity of the middle order. Pholsidae (3 species), Therididae (3 species), Uloboridae (3 species), Tetragnathidae (2 species), Gnaphosidae (2 species), Agelenidae(1 species), Corinnidae (1 species),

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Eresidae (1 species), Filistatidae (1 species), Miturgidae (1 species), Oecobiidae (1 species), Scytodidae (1 species) are also recorded during the present study. Generic diversity India subcontinent represents 438 genera (Keswani et. al., 2012) and Gujarat represent 89 genera (Siliwal, 2010) from which 51 genera are recorded in Vadnagar taluka. Salticidae represent highest generic diversity with 12 species follow by Araenidae (8) and Thomisidae (5). Species richness In account with Indian spider 1686 species are recorded (Keswani et. al., 2012) and 75 species are recorded from Vadnagar taluka in 312.23 sq.km area. Endemism In this 75 species recorded, Argiope anasuja, Hyllus semicupreus, Stegodyphus sarasinorum are endemic to South Asia. Neoscona mukerjei, Zygiella indica, Lycosa tista, Cheiracanthium nalsaroverense, Oxyopes ratnae, Myrmarachne bengalensis, Myrmarachne bengalensis, Heteropoda bhaikakai, Achaearanea durgae, Thomisus lobosus, Thomisus shivajiensis, Xysticus breviceps, Uloborus krishnae are endemic to India. Affinities The recorded spiders show similarities with pantropical, paleotropical, holarctic, palearctic and cosmotropical regions. Leucauge decorata having affinities with paleotropical region, Heteropoda venatoria, Menemerus bivittatus, Artema atlanta affinities with pantropical region, Holarctic Scytodes thoracica, palearctic Oxyopes lineatus and cosmotropical Neoscona nautica, Argiope pulchella, Larinia phthisica, Parawixia dehaanii, Pardosa birmanica, Oxyopes javanus show affinities with the species of China, Philippines, Sumatra.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Our sincere thanks are due to Professor A.V.R.L.N. Acharya, Bio-science department, S.P.University for providing lab facilities and also thankful to Dr. B.H.Patel for guidance of spider taxonomy in identification.

REFERENCES : B. M. Parasharya, Raju V. Vyas and B. H. Patel,2011. First Authentic Record of Regal Parachute Spider Poecilotheria regalis Pocock, 1899 and further Comments on the Distribution of Theraphosidae spiders from Gujarat State, India British Tarantula Society Journal,26: (2).

C.D. Patel and M.I. Patel,2010.Amnioticdiversity of Taranga Hill-forest, Gujarat, India. Our Nature (2010) 8:144-156.

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Champion, H. G. and Seth, S. K., 1968..A revised survey of the forest types of India.Government of India, Delhi.

Coddington, J.A., Young, L.H. and Coyle, F.A, 1996.Estimating spider species richness in a southernAppalachian cove hardwood forest.The Journal of Arachnology, 24: 111-128.

Coddington, J.A, Line L. Sorensens, and Nikolaj S., 2002.Inventorying and Estimating Subcanopy Spider Diversity UsingSemiquantitative Sampling Methods in an AfromontaneForestEnvironment. Entomology. 31(2): 319-330.

Keswani, S.,P.Hadole and A.Rajoria, 2012. Check list of Spiders (Arachnida:Araneae) from India, Indian Journal of Arachnology1 (1)1-129.

S.B. Patel, N.B. Bhatt AND K. B. Patel, 2012.Diversity of spider fauna Of Ratanmahal sloth Bear Sanctuary, Gujarat. Life science leaflets 7:74-79.Life sciences Leaflets 7: 74-79, 2012v Life sciences Leaflets 7: 74-79, 2012Life sciences Leaflets 7: 74-79, 2012

Manju Siliwal, B. Suresh & Bonny Pilo,2003.Spiders of Purna Wild life Sanctuary, Dangs, Gujarat.Zoos Print Journal. 18(11):1259-1263.

Manju Siliwal,2010.Spiders of Gujarat. Gujarat State Forest Department, .

N.C. Vachhani, M.D. Visavadia And S.K. Patel, 2012. A brief account of spiders of Junagadhdistrict,GujaratLife science leaflets 7:80-83

Nikunj Bhatt,2008.Study of biodiversity of order Araneae from , Gujarat.Research digests. 34 (4): 26-28

Parmar, B.M., 2013. “Short term study of spider diversity of Pariej wetland”. M.Sc. dissertation thesis, S.P.University

Patel, B.H.,2003. Spiders of Vansda National Park, Gujarat.Zoos Print Journal. 18 (4): 1279-1083.

Patel, B. H. and R. V. Vyas, 2001.Spiders of Hingolgadh Nature Sanctuary, Gujarat, India.Zoos Print Journal. 16(9): 589-590.

Platnick, N. I., 2013.The World spider catalogue, version 12.5. American Museum of Natural History. Online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html

Sebastian, P.A. and Peter, K.V.,2009.Spiders of India, First edition, Universities Press, Hyderabad.pp 398.

Siliwal, M., S. Molur, and B. K. Biswas, 2005. Indian Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae): Updated Checklist 2005. Zoos, Print Journal. 20(10): 1999-2049.

Upamanyu, Hore, 2009. “Diversity and Structure of Spider Assemblages in Terai Conservation Area”, thesis PhD, University

Uniyal, V.P., Sivakumar, K. and Quasin, S., 2011. Diversity of Spiders in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve.Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.(DST Project Completion Report).

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TABLE 1:SYSTEMATIC LIST OF RECORDED SPIDERS IN THE STUDY AREA

No Family Genus/Sp. Gender Guild

(1) Agelenidae Agelena sp. F Ground runner

(2) Araneidae Araneus ellipticus M Orb web builder Araneus sp J

Cyrtophora cicatrosa F

Argiope anasuja F Argiope pulchella F Argiope sp., Juv J

Neoscona mukerjei F Neoscona achine F Neoscona nautica M Neoscona sp F

Larinia phthisica F

Parawixia dehaani F

Poltys sp F

Zygiella indica F

(3) Corinnidae Castianeira tinae F Ground runner

(4) Eresidae Stegodyphus sarasinorum F Ground runner

(5) Filistatidae Filistata sp F Crevice weaver

(6) Gnaphosidae Trachyzlotes sp F Ground runner

Poecilochroa sp F

(7) Hersilidae Hersilia savignyi M Foliage runner Hersilia sp.1 F Hersilia sp.2 F Hersilia sp.3 M

(8) Lycosidae Arctosa sp M Ground runner

Pardosa alii F

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Pardosa birmanica F

Lycosa tista F Lycosa sp.1 M

(9) Miturgidae Cheiracanthium nalsaroverense M Foliage runner

(10) Oecobiidae Oecobius sp J

(11) Oxyopidae Oxyopes javanus F Foliage runner Oxyopesratnae F Oxyopesryves F Oxyopes sp.1 J Oxyopes sp.2 J Oxyopes sp.3 M

Peucetia latikae F

Hamadruas sp F

(12) Pholcidae Artema atlanta F Scattered line weaver

Crossopriza lyoni J

Pholcus sp J

(13) Salticidae Epeus sp F Foliage runner

Hentzia sp J

Hyllus semicupreus F

Menemerus bivittatus M Menemerus sp M

Myrmarachne bengalensis F

Phintella sp J

Phlegra sp J

Plexippus paykulli M

Siler sp J

Telamonia sp J

Thiania sp F

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Thyene imprialis F

(14) Scytodidae Scytodes thoracica F Ground runner

(15) Sparassidae Heteropoda bhaikakai M Ground runner Heteropoda venatoria F

Olios milleti F Olios tener F Olios sp. F

(16) Tetragnathidae Leucauge decorata F Orb web builder

Tetragnatha mandibulata F

(17) Therididae Achaearanea durgae F

Argyrodes argentatus F

Chrysso sp J

(18) Thomisidae Misumena sp J Ambusher

Oxytate virens F

Thomisus lobosus F Thomisus shivajiensis F

Runcinia Sp F

Xysticus breviceps F

(19) Uloboridae Uloborus krishnae F Orb web builder Uloborus plumipes F Uloborus sp J

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Figure: 1. Map showing geographical position of Vadnagar

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