Spider Occurrence in Fields of some Medical and Ornamental Plants in Fayoum -Egypt

Document Type : Original research articles

Authors

Plant Protection Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt

Abstract

Spiders were collected by using ground pitfall trap and shaking method (vegetation beating). Pitfall-traps were practiced
once every week in four medicinal and ornamental crops in Fayoum Governorate. A total of 315 spiders of 22 species,
2lgcnera and 15 families were collected, from 320 pitfalls and shaking method collections from of March, 10 to end of
August, 2010. The family Lycosidae, was found to be the dominant in the four experimented fields, recording 159
individuals, representing 74.6 % of the total ground collected fauna; followed by the family Philodromidae which
represented 20.1 % of the total of aerial collected spiders and being abundant in Red pepper vegetation. The
composition of ground collected spider and their densities differed in the four vegetations from that of the aerial
collected spiders. The activity densities of ground collected spider communities in the Spearmint, Castor bean, Roselle
and Red pepper recorded 34, 64 and 73 and 45 individuals respectively, while those of aerial collected spider were 63, 7
and 29 individuals in Spearmint, Castor bean and Red pepper. No spiders were collected from vegetation of Roselle
plant. Community composition of the ground and the aerial collected spiders were determined throughout the period of
study using the Shannon-Wiener and Simpson Indices of diversity. Obtained results revealed that species diversity
differed in the two communities. Monthly fluctuations of the total number of spiders showed high populations in June.

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