A Preliminary Study on Diversity of Spiders at Amanikere Park in Tumakuru District, Karnataka

Spiders belong to the order Araneae which is the largest order among the class Arachnida. Spiders are considered as indicators of overall species richness and the health of terrestrial communities. The Amanikere Park with different plantations harbors a wide variety of spider fauna. The survey was carried out from August 2019 to January 2020 by using random sampling, gentle tapping, visual observation and photographic methods. During the study, a total number of 50 species belonging to 41 genera of 14 families were documented. In the present study it was found that, the family Araneidae was dominated by having 15 species followed by the family Salticidae having 13 species and the least were from Cheiracanthiidae, Eresidae, Hersiliidae, Philodromidae, Theridiidae and Uloboridae with single species from each family.