PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Short Communication A preliminary checklist of spiders (Araneae: Arachnida) in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal District, Gujarat, India Reshma Solanki, Manju Siliwal & Dolly Kumar 26 August 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 11 | Pages: 16576–16596 DOI: 10.11609/jot.3094.12.11.16576-16596 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2020 | 12(11): 16576–16596 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3094.12.11.16576-16596 #3094 | Received 09 January 2020 | Final received 13 January 2020 | Finally accepted 06 July 2020 S h o r A preliminary checklist of spiders (Araneae: Arachnida) in t Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal District, Gujarat, India C o m 1# 2 3 m Reshma Solanki , Manju Siliwal & Dolly Kumar u n 1,3 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat 390002, India. i 2 Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, 12 Thiruvannamalai Nagar, Saravanampat-Kalapat Road, Saravanampat, c a Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India. t # - deceased i 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected] (corresponding author) o n Abstract: Studies relatng to spiders in Gujarat have been sporadic Spiders, in general, being chiefy entomophagous play and most of the spider documentaton have been done from agriculture felds, wetlands and few from protected areas. One such an important ecological role in the terrestrial ecosystem undocumented area was Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal (Marc et al. 1999; Skerl & Gillespie 1999). Due to their District, Gujarat. Therefore, a study to document the spider diversity ability of aerial ballooning they can readily disperse into was carried out in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary from July 2012 to October 2015. A combinaton of four sampling methods namely, belt diferent habitats and being generalist predators they transect along with hand-pick method, pitall sampling, vegetaton are abundant in all terrestrial habitats (Coddington & beatng and leaf liter extracton were used for collecton of spiders Levi 1991). They also play a signifcant role in controlling from diferent strata. During the study, a total of 138 species belonging to 90 genera and 29 families were recorded from the study area. Of the insect populatons in the agricultural felds (Riechert which, 21 species and 17 genera were recorded for the frst tme from & Bishop 1990). They also play an important role in the Gujarat State. The theridiid genus Cephalobares O. Pickard-Cambridge, food chain by being abundant food source for birds, 1870 was recorded for the frst tme from India. The families Araneidae, Saltcidae, Theridiidae and Oxyopidae were found to be dominant lizards, wasps, and other animals. Over 48,643 valid in the area. We recognized seven feeding guilds namely ambushers, species of spiders belonging to more than 4,173 genera foliage runners, ground runners, orb weavers, sheet web-builders, and 128 families have been reported throughout the space web-builders and stalkers. Amongst these, orb-weavers, stalkers and ground runners were dominant. This documentaton, however, world (World Spider Catalog 2019). Out of which, over forms the baseline informaton for spiders of Jambughoda WLS, 1,700 species belonging to more than 450 genera and 61 suggestng the great diversity of the spider fauna in this protected diferent families have been reported from India (World area, which can be further explored. Spider Catalog 2019). Keywords: Araneidae, orb-weavers, Oxyopidae, Panchmahal District, Though in the past, spider documentaton from Saltcidae, stalkers, Theridiidae, Vadodara District. Gujarat have been sporadic but is relatvely beter recorded as compared to other states in the country. Major contributon to the spider fauna of the Gujarat Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publicaton: 26 August 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Solanki, R., M. Siliwal & D. Kumar (2020). A preliminary checklist of spiders (Araneae: Arachnida) in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal District, Gujarat, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(11): 16576–16596. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.3094.12.11.16576-16596 Copyright: © Solanki et al 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: None. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the following personnel/ organizatons: PCCF, Gujarat Forest Department for giving permission to carry out spider surveys in Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary; Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for grantng UGC-RFSMS fellowship; Dr. Suresh Kumar, Wildlife Insttute of India, for providing technical support; special thanks to Mr. Kartk Upadhyay for helping in the photography of spiders; Mr. Harshad Bariya and Mr. Pritesh Patel for their assistance during feld work and for preparing the maps, respectvely; Prof. Arun Arya, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, for providing technical support. 16576 J TT Checklist of spiders in Jambughoda WS Solanki et al. was done by Patel and team by describing 47 species al. 2012), Shoolpaneshwar WS (147 species) (Pandey & from 18 families (Patel 1971, 1973, 1988, 1989, Raval 2010), Vansda NP (124 species) (Singh et al. 2000c, 2003; Patel & Patel 1972, 1975; Patel & Reddy 1990; Patel 2003), and Wild Ass WS (27 species) (Singh et al. Parasharya & Vyas 2013). Apart from these reports, 1999). several other sporadic checklists from agricultural felds The Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary (WS) is one such (Kumar & Shivakumar 2006; Trivedi 2009) and habitats unstudied protected area in central Gujarat located in Gujarat contributed to additon of new species and between Panchmahal and Vadodara districts known for new distributon records (Siliwal & Kumar 2001; Kumar its relatvely rich biodiversity including fagship species & Shivakumar 2006; Trivedi 2009; Parasharya et al. 2011; like Sloth Bear and Leopard. Studies in the past in Vachhani et al. 2012; Parmar & Patel 2015; Vasava et al. Jambughoda WS from this protected area were restricted 2015; Prajapat et al. 2016a,b,c). So far, over 400 species to fora and higher vertebrates like mammals, birds, of spiders have been reported from Gujarat (Kumar reptles and fshes (Padate et al. 2003; Vyas 2006; Devkar 2015; Yadav et al. 2017). et al. 2013). Moreover, invertebrate documentaton In Gujarat State, most of the spider documentaton from this area was restricted only to lepidopteran and has been done from nonprotected areas like agriculture few insect species (Padate et al. 2003). Therefore, in felds, wetlands etc. and very few from protected the present study, we initated documentaton of spider areas. A total of 27 regions are deemed as protected diversity from Jambughoda WS. areas in Gujarat from which, only 10 areas areas have a documentaton of spiders, viz., Barda WS (62 species) Materials and Methods (Singh et al. 2000a), Hingolgadh Nature Educaton The study was conducted in the Jambughoda Sanctuary (56 species) (Singh et al. 2000b; Patel & Vyas WS, which is located between 22.333–22.550 0N and 2001), Jessore WS (157 species) (Pandey et al. 2004a), 73.583–75.750 0E in Panchmahal and Vadodara districts Narayan Sarovar WS (24 species) (Singh et al. 2001), of Gujarat State, India (Figure 1). The sanctuary area Purna WS (116 species) (Siliwal et al. 2003; Pandey et al. extends over 130.38km2 and is covered by three 2004b), Rampara WS (21 species) (Singh & Tatu 1999), forest ranges, viz., Halol, Jambughoda, and Vadodara. Ratanmahal Sloth Bear Sanctuary (42 species) (Patel et Alttudes ranges from 230 to 354 m. Jambughoda WS Figure 1. Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Panchmahal District, Gujarat, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2020 | 12(11): 16576–16596 16577 J TT Checklist of