Diversity and abundance of spider fauna at different habitats of Jahangirnagar University Campus, Bangladesh

Abstract

Diversity, abundance and seasonal prevalence of spiders at different habitats of Jahangirnagar University campus was studied from March, 2013 to February, 2014. A total of 1690 individuals were recorded under 11 families, 49 genera and 116 species Family Salticidae was dominant with 16 genera under 42 species, whereas Araneidae ranked second with 26 species under 9 genera. Pholcidae and Uloboridae each had only one species. Chrysilla lautau (Salticidae), a new species, was recorded for the first time in Bangladesh. Nine different guilds of spiders were observed during the study. Jumping spiders were the most dominant, with 36.21% of the total number of spider guilds. Diversity indices of Shannon-Wiener, Simpson and Margalef were, respectively: 2.18, 0.89 and 3.39. Pielou’s evenness index was 0.91.As the spiders are excellent bio-indicators, survey of their populations at regular interval may provide important biological information about the ecological condition of the study area.