Study of Biodiversity of spider in Koka wildlife sanctuary

and Rawanwadi Jungle, area Bhandara, District Maharastra.

Mona .D. Nagapure, Msc. Sem 4th (zoology)

D. R. Saxena Sir
Department of Zoology,
Kamla Nehru Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur.

Abstract :
Koka wildlife sanctuary area is located in Bhandara. The Study
describes the identification of the spider assemblages with respect to their
diversity and distributionin the dry deciduous forest. The biodiversity of
spider in Koka wildlife Sanctuary, Bhandara, India, and Rawanwadi is being
reported for the first time. A total 16 species of spider belonging to 8
families were recorded during the study from August 2018 to march 2019.
The species were identified using keys for Indian spider from (Gajbe P.
(2014), Tikader (1980), Pocock (1900) in great India spiders. Spiders are
mainly two types ie. Hunting spider and web making spiders. Methodology
included active searching at a height from ground level of tree canopy
accessible easily for hand collecting and visual surveys. This is the first
attempt to report the Spiders assemblages and their habitat prferences from
Koka and Rawanwadi, Maharastra state, India. Spiders are important
biocontrol agent in terrestrial ecosystem. The present study has revealed
sixteen species of spiders of 8 families. Viz Nephillidae, Araneidae,
Sparassidae, Salticidae, Gnaphosidae, Lycosidae, Oxyopidae, Ageleneidae.
The recorded Species include both hunting spider orb web weavers .

Keywords :Koka wildlife, Bhandara, Maharastra, spider, Araneae,

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INTRODUCTION
Spiders from one of the most fascinating and diverse animal group
in the world. Many types of spider can easily be found in any terrestrial
habitat. Spiders belong to order Araneae of class Arachnida. They come
in various sizes, and colours and are found in different types of habitat
preying on small invertebrates. In nature they have very important role as
biological control agent of insects. According to world spider catalogue,
45945 species of spider belonging to 3982 genera under 114 families are
known from the world. According to Siliwal et al, (2005). 1442 species
of spiders belonging to 361 genera in 59 families are known from india.
Spiders have become a successful group due to the many and varied
ways in their capability to use silk. Ecosystem of some species in that
region was under high danger of complete annihilation owing to
unsustainable human activites. A major action stragety implemented for
environmental conservation involve survey for called biological
monitoring system using modern tequniques like, GIS and GPS.
Such survey usually identify the environmental disturbance in a
given ecosystem using selected group of organism called bioindicators.
Many Amphibian, Reptiles, Aves Mammals, and Spiders are good
indicators of environmental health. They play important role in the
dynamic of a specific habitat and are sensitive to habitat loss, climatic
change and environmental upheavelas. Spiders are one among the
important predators of insect pest in the ecosystem.
In this study emphasis was laid on to specify the diversity of spiders
and their potential as bioindicators of this region. In general taxonomic
studies was done on spider and invertebrates of koka wildlife sanctuary
Bhandara, India.

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Material And Methods :
Nagpur is located in central India in the eastern part of Maharastra
state. Koka village located near Bahandara. Koka wildlife sanctuary is at
distance of about 70 km from Nagpur and The park is situated barely 20
km from Bhandara and close to Nagzira wildlife Sanctuary. The total area
of park is 92.34 sq.km.
During some founal survey of invertebrates carried out in and
around koka from August 2018 to February 2019, Spider were searched
for and observe in a variety of places such as ecotone and edge effect,
houses roadside vegetation on the bark trees and underneath stones.
Spider were observed and collected from deciduous forest
vegetation surrounding the lake. After collecting specimen were preserved
in 70% ethyl alcohol in glass vials the species were identify with the help
of scientific literature by the comparision of morphological feature for
captuaring the photographs of spider by using DSLR Nikon camera.
Scientific literature including Anon (2016), Gajbe P.U.(2014),
pocock(1900), Tikader and Malhotra (1980) were used for identification
of spider.

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Map Of Koka Wildlife Sanctuary.

Map Of Rawanwadi

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Observation :
During the study species were recorded, belonging to 16 genera of 8
families under order Araneae of class Archinida. Most species of spider
found belonged to family salticidae, lycosidae and araneidae. Nephila
pillipes was found to be most abundant species in this region followed by
Plexippus paykulli, Oxyopes Neoscona vigilans, etc. Out of total spider
species recorded, mostly the common species were found at road side tree
around the lake. The unidentified species were properly labelled as
morphospecies and photographed for identification. The pattern of web
building, egg laying, egg sac feeding and reproduction may be noticed for
different species and properly recorded. In that time mostly orb web spider
were founded.

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Checklist of biodiversity of spiders of Koka and Rawanwadi. Bhandara.
Sr. Scientific name common name family Location
No
1 Nephila pillipes Orb web spider Nephillidae Rawanwadi
Jungle
2 Neoscona Signature spider Araneidae Rawanwadi
vigilans Jungle
3 Neoscona theis Signature spider Araneidae Rawanwadi
jungle
4 Heteropoda Gaint crab spider Sposassidae Indoor
venatoria
5 Menemerus Gray Wall Jumper Salticidae Outdoor
bivittatis
6 Plexippus Jumping Spider Salticidae Outdoor
paykulli
7 Telamonia Two striped Salticidae Outdoor
dimidiate jumping Spider
8 Scopoides Ground Spider Gnaphosidae Indoor
maitraiae
9 Scary Michigan Brown recluse lycosidae Rawanwadi
spider jungle
10 Hippasa Wolf spider lycosidae Koka jungle
pisaurina
11 Hippasa Wolf spider lycosidae Koka jungle
agelenoids
12 Peucetia viridana Green lynx Spider Oxyopidae Outdoor
13 Lycosidae Wolf spider Lycosidae outdoor

14 Oxyopes salticus Striped lynx Oxyopidae Koka jungle

spider
15 Agelenopsis Grass Spider Agelenidae House
Outdoor
16 Neoscona Signature spider Araneidae Koka jungle
adianta

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1) Family : Nephillidae

 Nephila pillipes
Common name: Gaint orb web spider
It is one of the largest spider in the world. Females are very
large and grow to a body length of 30-50 mm, while males are very
small growing to 5-6 mm. It is found in forest or wooded areas, where
it builds large orb –webs between the trunks of trees. These orb web
may appear golden in bright sunlight.

2) Family : Araneidae

 Neoscona vigilans
Common name: Signature spider
Neoscona vigilans belongs to Araneidae Family. Female N-
vigilans measure 12-18 mm, the male 9-11 mm. The spider is
brownish in colour, dorsally the abdomen is generally pattern with
light and dark marking but it may be uniformly darkish brown.
During the day this orb web spider hide in curled green leaf It habitat
reported to be tres and shrubes in shady parts of garden, waste land
and Secondary forest.

 Neoscona theisi
Body length about 8 mm cephalothorax is brown, abdomen
white with blackish pathches. It is found in vegetation along the
roadside. It repairs or construct its orb web in the evening.

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3) Family : Sparassidae
 Heteropoda Venatoria, Linnaeus (1767)
Common name: Gaint crab spider
Body length about 20 to 25 mm. Body is dorso-ventrally
flattened and dark brown in colour. The female may be slightly
larger than the male, particularly in the abdomen, but the male has
longer legs. The legs have erectile setae. It is commonly lives in
houses. It feeds on insects hunting them directly instead of forming
webs.

4) Family : Salticidae
 Menemerus bivittatus,Dufor (1831)
Body length about 8 to 9 mm. The male has a median blackish
longitudinal stripes with whitish stripes on either side of the
abdomen. The carapace and chelicerae are also black and browinish
white and the legs have transverse banding of the same colour. It is
commonly found on tree trunk and the outside walls of the buildings.

 Plexippus paykulli
Body length 7 to 9 mm. The male has black
cephalothorax and abdomen with a broad white central stripes, and a
broad white stripes on both sides and a pair of spots near the posterior
end of the abdomen. It is generally found living ground man made
structure and can be observed on the outer walls of buildings.

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 Telamonia dimidiate, simon (1899)
Common name: Two stripes Jumping spider
Body length 9 to 11 mm. The female has pale yellowish white
cephalothorax and abdomen. Two longitudinal bright red stripes are
present on the abdomen. It is found hiding in the leaves of garden
plants.

5) Family : Gnaphosidae
 Scopoides maitraiae
Common name: Ground spider
Body length about 8mm. Cephalothorax dark brown, abdomen
is blackish with fine pubescence. It is found in house and is active at
night time looking for insects.

6) Family : Lycosidae
 Scary Michigan spider
Michiagan seems to have become a breeding ground for spider and
large spider discoveries. Are large dangerous, scary spiders
becoming more common on michigian. Body length about 8 to 10
mm. It is found in forest floor.

 Hippasa pisaurina
Common name: Grass land funnel web spider
Hippasa is a genus of wolf spider in the family Lycosidae.
Body length is about 10 to 11 mm. It has ground living spiders.
Cephalothorax longer than wide narrower and higher cephalic region.
It is found in funnel webs over small hole in the ground floor. On legs
of spider the black colour strips are observed.
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 Hippasa agelenoides
Common name: Wolf spider
Body length about 10 mm Cephalothorax and abdomen
dark brown with whitish stripes on lateral sides. It is found in funnel
webs made over small holes in the ground. These funnel webs can be
easily observed on the forest floor.

7) Family: Oxyopidae

 Peucetia viridana

Common name: green lynx spider

The body of females may be as much as 22 mm. long. The
male is smaller about 12mm. in length. It was usually found on
greens plants.

 Lycosidae

Common name: wolf spider

Wolf spider belongs to lycosidae family. The body structure of
this spider is small maximum 6-7 mm. and it mostely founded on
building walls. Colour of spider is brown. Wolf spider are unique in
the way that they carry eggs. The egg sac a round silken globe is
attached to the spinnerest at the end of abdomen.

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  Oxyopes salticus

Common name: Striped Lynx spider,

Adult specimen have some colour variation between orange,
cream and brown. Adult females typically have stripes on both
carapace and abdomen, through on many specimen the stripes are
more pronounced on the abdomen Adult females range in size from
5-6 mm, and adult males range in size 4-5 mm. commonly seen on
the upper surface of grasses and shruby vegetation during day time.
They do not build up web.

8) Family: Agelenidae
 Agelenopsis
Common name: Grass spider
Body length about 4 mm, most of the agelenoidae are very fast
runner, especially on their web. Aglenoides have eight eye in two
horizontal rows of four. The cephalothorax narrow Some what
toward the front. Abdomen is less oval.

9) Family: Araneidae
 Neoscona adianta
Common name: Signature spider
The species of spider belonging to the family Araneidae. The
female has body length of around 9mm and male being rather smaller.
The colouration included a brown ton red abdomen marked with a
series of black borderd white or cream triangels. The web is usually
constructed among flower heads.

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Result & discussion:
As per checklist, 16 Spiders species of 9 genera of 8 families were
recorded from Koka wildlife sanctuary. Those belonging to the genera
Heteropoda were found in buildings whereas the other species were found
over vegetation. Spiders of genera Nephila, Argiope, Neoscona, Hippasa
make webs for catching insects while other genera like Heteropoda and
Oxyopes hunt the prey.

Nephila spiders makes their web near water Nephila pilipes make the
largest orb webs between adjacent trees(see fig.1) some spider like wolf
spider are found in fourth floor of the building. The important limiting
factor during seasonal variation in year may be avaibility of food the dry
decrease corresponds to be a period of low spider population. The absence
of spider during the late wet seasons may be related to food supply. The
behaviour of spider such as active hunting and their occurance of air,
ground, and water surface to disperse and colonize large areas. Tikader
published the first comprehensive list of Indian Spider, which included 1067
species belonging to 249 genera in 43 families. Gajbe described 147 new
Spider species from different habitat of India. More P. U. Gajbe (2015)
reported the species of Spider belonging 12 genera of the family from
Godazari.

Pheromones are generally emitted by female and recive by male

spider. Female spider emit or silk based sex pheromones, which can be air
born or received via contact with on male pedipalps. Spider venoms are
complex mixture of components used to paralyse prey item and defend
against predators. The spiders venom is very neurotoxic peptide and
proteins. However, much less is know about the intraction of venom
components within the prey. Spider silk thread is very useful to our human

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being, spider produce the silk and making web. Spider silk is a natural
polypeptide, polymeric protein and collagen. Silk thread has been used to
bullet proof clothing, wear resistant lightweight clothing, Ropes. Nets seat
belts, parachutes, Biodegradable bottles. Bandaegs surgical thread.

Conclusion
The diversity of spider were influenced by seasonal changes as winter
and summer seasons was found to be favourable for increase in population
of spiders as compared to summer seasons. Hence the spider diversity is
affected by habitat as well as seasonal changes and availiblity of vegetation
cover or the habitat, food, etc.

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Referance

1. Gajbe. P.U (2004): spiders of Jabalpur Madhya Pradesh.

2. Gajbe U.A. and Gajbe P. (2000). A new species of spider of the
genus oxyopes from India.
3. Tikader, B.K. (1963): studies on some spider fauna Maharashtra.
4. Tikader, B.K and M.S. Malhotra (1980) fauna of India. Family
Lycosidae published by zoological survey of India.
5. Pawan Gajbe Department of zoology S.M. Mohata collage
Nagpur Maharashtra India.
6. Chaudhary, R, Dhamge Taquiaddin, s. Gogte 2003. Government
of Maharashtra Nagpur.
7. Pocock R. (1900) Great India spiders. The genus poeciltheria its
habits history of species Journal & Bombay Natural History
Society.
8. www. Google.com. / Wikipedia.

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 Fig 1. Nephila pillipes Fig.2 Neoscona vigilans

Fig 3.Neoscona theis Fig 4. Heteropoda venaeoria

Fig 5. Menemerus bivittatus fig 6. Plexippus paykuli

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 Fig 7.Telamonia dimidiata Fig 8. Scopoides maitraiae

Fig 9. Scary Michigan spider Fig 10.Hippasa pisaurina

Fig 11. Hippasa agelenoides Fig 12. Peucetia viridana

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 Fig 13. Oxyopes salticus Fig 14. Lycosidae

Fig 15. Agelenopsis Fig 16. Neoscona adianta

Fig 17. Dorsal view of nephila pillipes Fig 18. Ventral view of nephila pillipes
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