Diversity of Spiders in Paddy Ecosystem of Middle Gujarat

Author: Raghunandan B.L.*, Patel, N.M. and Patel, N.B.

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Abstract

Spiders play a significant role in agro-ecosystem as predators. The knowledge on the diversity and abundance of spider species in crucial in developing ecologically sound pest management strategies. A study was carried out to document the diversity of spiders in paddy growing area of middle Gujarat. Tarapur (Lat. 22.4877806 & Long. 72.6582336) area of Anand district of Gujarat was selected for the survey during the year 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. Periodical surveys were conducted for the collection of spiders from paddy ecosystem. The different indices viz., species richness, species diversity and species evenness were calculated. The family Araneidae was observed to be the dominant one with maximum number of species- four species (44.44%), five species (71.43%) and seven species (43.75%) in the year 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively. The Agriope sp. and Neoscona theisi were found to be the dominant species during the study period. The highest Simpson’s diversity index (D)

Keywords

Spider, diversity, paddy, araneidae, species richness.