Executive Summary of the Final Report

UGC Sponsored Major Research Project

1) Title of the Project :

Inventorization of Spider Diversity from Protected Areas of

Northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

2) Name and address of the Principal Investigator:

Dr. Suvarna Balkrishna More
Associate Professor, Dept. of Zoology
P. V. P. Mahavidyalaya , Kavathe Mahankal
Dist. - Sangli Pin 416405
Maharashtra , India

3 UGC Approval Letter No. and Date

F. No. 41-25/2012(SR),

10 July 2012

4) Date of Implementation:

1.7.2012

5) Tenure of the project

3 Years. From 1 July 2012 to 1 July 2015

1) Objectives of the Project

The present work is to be carried out in theprotected areas of the Chandoli National
Park, Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary (Sahyadri Tiger Reserve) and Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary.
The main objectives of the present study will be as follows,
1) To document the diversity of spider species in Western Ghats.
2) To assess species richness, distribution and abundance of spiders in different vegetation Types.
2)

Methodology

Habitat of Collection - All possible habitats of spider such as roots of grass, dry hay and grasses,
moist places, under stones, pebbles, dead leaves & litter, humus, bushes, on the bark and branches of
trees, water logged locations, houses and huts etc. will be surveyed.
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a) The information regarding habitat will be collected and studied by actual spot visits in the
study area.
b) The standard methods of classification will be followed with the help of existing literature.
c) Morphological study with the help photography of the available species of Spiders will be
perform in the laboratory of P.V.P. Mahavidyalaya, Kavathe Mahankal, Dept. of zoology.
3)

Results

Thus the results indicate the dominance of ground dwelling spiders like Salticids , gnaphosids
and Lycosides in these three adjuscent Sanctuaries. The forest is semiever green and rich in shrubs
as undestroyed habitats resulting into ground dweling spiders. Presently researcher have reported
spiders from 27 families belonging to 118 genera and 238 species. Also reported spiders from
Family theropsidae i. e. Tarantula sp.
Spider Records From Northern Western Ghats Of Maharashtra
Sahyadri Tiger Reserve ( Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary , Chandioli National Park )and Radhanagari
Wildlife Sanctuary.
Sr.
No

Family

Western Ghats (Radhanagari,

Chandoli and Koyna)
Genera

Species

Araneidae

19

46

Clubionidae

Corinnidae

Dictynidae

Eresidae

Filistatidae

Gnaphosidae

12

Hersiliidae

Linyphidae

Lycosidae

10

29

10

Miturgidae

11

Nephilidae

12

Oonopidae

13

Oxyopidae

15

14

Philodromidae

15

Pholcidae

16

Pisauridae

17

Psechridae

18

Salticidae

22

38

19

Scytodidae

20

Sicariidae

21

Sparassidae

22

Stenochilidae

23

Tetragnathidae

24

Theridiidae

11

15

25

Thomisidae

12

24

26

Uloboridae

27

Zodariidae

118

238

Total
.
4) Discussion

The occurrence of major spider families and their relative abundance were studied in the central
Western ghats of Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary Chandoli National Park) and
Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary. So far nobody has worked out or studied the spider fauna of
Radhangari Wildlife Sanctuary, Chandoli National Park and Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary. Hence present
study has been undertaken. Presently researcher has reported spiders from 27 families belonging to 118
genera and 238 species. And tarantula from family ataheropsidae.

Spider species were observed on spot on various trees, shrubs, bushes, grasses, in leaf folds, on
flowers, under stones and logs and leaf litter of forest floor. Many spiders can be seen by sharp eyed
person in webs. They were photographed as in their natural conditions. The specimens were compared
with standard checklist of Zoological Survey of India and from Technical Bulletin No. XXXVI2007 of
Sant Gadage Baba Amravati University.
Spiders are undoubtedly fascinating. They are of great value to the environment. The present study
of spider fauna will be a great significance from the point of view of biodiversity. Spiders have a general
blanket effect promoting evolution helping and keeping insect population under control and supplying
food for many other animals and therefore keeping the flow of life moving.
Spiders are truly amazing animals. Spider silk is one of the seven great wonders of the animal
kingdom. The most outstanding think of spider is their ability to make silk. All spiders possess spinning
glands and make silk. Spider silk is light and strong. It is generally accepted that spiders in the genus
Nephila produce the strongest draglines. Paul Hillyard say in the book of spiders 1994, spiders silk is
stronger than still and about as strong as nylon (for equal diameter). Humans have used spider silk for a
number of uses for a long time. Spider silk has long been admired by material scientists for its unique
combination of high-performance properties including toughness, strength, lightness and flexibility,
coaxing them to try out innovative methods to produce the silk in bulk quantities.
Spider silk is used in variety of applications. These include wound closure systems, including
vascular wound repair devices, haemostatic dressings, patches and glues, sutures and artificial tendons
and ligaments. Man-made spider silk also offers unique combinations of properties suited to a range of
specific technical applications such as bulletproof vests, parachute cords, bridge suspension cables,
wear-resistant shoes and clothing, seat belts and rust-free bumpers for automobiles. Industrial markets
include specially ropes and nests, sporting goods and apparel and performance composites. Indeed the
possibilities are almost limitless.
The practical and economic potential of artificial spider silk is tremendous. Already the police,
the military, physicians and other groups are eager to obtain large quantities of dragline silk, which can
be woven or compacted to make bulletproof clothing, replacement ligaments, medical sutures, fishing
line, ropes for rock climbers, tethers to sang planes landing on aircraft carriers and myriad other
products. Spiders are predators of pests like thrips, catter pillers, aphids, plant bugs, leaf hoppers, flies
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etc., In China many people take the number of spiders in a field as a measure of its potential agricultural
productivity. Once pesticides are kept away from the field spiders take shelter in the fields, feeds on the
pests and add to the productivity.
Mass rearing technologies have been developed for Giant Crab Spiders (Heteropoda venatoria)
which feed on cockroach, one of the most troublesome pests known to man. It has been established that
having two to three of giant crab spiders in the house of about 600 sq.ft., can keep the cockroach
population under fairly good check. It has been established that spiders and natural products can be used
in combination to control a wide variety of pests in the paddy ecosystem. Spiders have been found to be
most abundant group of predators in the cotton ecosystem, constituting by numbers up to 60% of the
predacious arthropods in the cotton.
Spiders are undoubtedly fascinating, despite their bad press in many people's minds and they are
also an extremely valuable part of the balance of the world we live in. They are not greatest of pest
control agents, unless you consider all insects to be pests which are a very erroneous point of view,
although they are cheap, and very useful. Spiders are, for the most part, such generalist feeders that they
kill many useful insects as well as many pest species, however because pest species are by their nature
more numerous than beneficial species they are still effective. They are of great value to the
environment. Spiders have a general blanket or buffer effect, promoting evolution, helping keeping
insect numbers under control in a broad sense and supplying food for many other animals and therefore
keeping the flow of life moving. Many species of jumping spider found all over the world. The most
familiar of the worlds 40,000 spider spices are the orb weavers, spiders that create the familiar wagon
wheel shaped webs to catch their prey.
Welcome to the wonderful world of spiders. Really spiders are amazing animals. Spiders are an
important part of the ecological balance of the world, without them our lives would be less pleasant.
They are clever, useful, diverse, fascinating and often beautiful as well. There are aeronautic spiders,
designer spiders, spiders that hunt with a bolas, others that throw a net over their prey. There are
perfumer spiders that use false pheromones to attract moths. The aquanaut spiders that drive beneath the
water and the engineer spiders build the underground tunnels with well fitted doors. There are solitary
spiders and highly social spiders; there are spider thieves and scavengers and free lining hunters or that
specializes in hunting other spiders.
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The present study of Spider fauna will be a great significance from the point of view
biodiversity. As such there is no work on any aspect of Spider fauna of Western Ghats of Chandoli
National Park, Radhanagari and Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary; hence with the present work we will try to
fill up a gap of information regarding biodiversity of Spider fauna in these areas.
If you wish to live and thrive
Let a Spider run alive