Abundance and Diversity of Spiders in Agroecosystems of Jabalpur Upadhyay Jagrati1,*, Das S B2 1Faculty of Agriculture, Mangalayatan UniversityJabalpur483002, Madhya Pradesh, India 2Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, JNKVV, Jabalpur482004, Madhya Pradesh, India *Email: jagratiu.09@gmail.com (corresponding author): ORCID ID 0000-0001-5978-4741
Online Published on 31 August, 2024. Abstract The fauna of spiders which is a significant part of agriculture ecosystem was observed in 8 crop fields during the kharif. The spiders were caught from June-October, using sweep nets. The total numbers of spider species were 37 representing 12 families. Araneidae was the most abundant family, followed by Thomisidae, Salticidae, Oxyopidae, Tetragnathidae, Clubionidae, Dictynidae, Gnaphosidae, Lycosidae, Sparassidae, Theridiidae and Ulboridae. The species diversity index (H`) was 4.98 and the Equitability index (EH) was 0.95. An ordination of correspondence analysis demonstrated a bunching of the spiders commencing to paddy fields was more as compared to other crops. Thus, paddy seemed to give better natural niche for the spiders than other field crops. Increasing use of pesticides is the main menace to the several species and their survival in agroecosystem. Top Keywords Spider, Fauna, Abundance, Field, Kharif season, Paddy, Diversity index, Soybean, Equitability index, Maize, Cowpea, Correspondence analysis, Sorghum, Pigeonpea, Agroecosystem, Crop, Green gram. Top |