The Study of Habit, Habitat, Web Pattern and Parental Care in Herennia multipunctata (Arachnida: Araneae) from Sahyadri Tiger Reserve

Diversity of spiders from Sahyadri Tiger Reserve is unique and is one of the important protected areas of the Maharashtra State, located in the Western Ghats. The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve is home to several species rich endemic flora and harbors different species of fauna. From the study area we studied the, habit, habitat, web pattern and parental care of coin spider, Herennia multipunctata (Doleschall 1859) also called as ornamental tree trunk spider. Most of the area of Sahyadri Tiger Reserve is dense semi-evergreen forest with a wide range of flora. The spiders Herennia from Family araneidae are the characteristic spider with a specific plant habitat. Its habit is the trunks of the trees. This spider harbors the trees like, Dalbergia latifolia (Shisham), Tectona grandis (Sag) Terminalia arjuna, Acacia mangium, Terminalia elliptica (crocodile bark) and some times Mangifera indica tree. Web pattern is unique one. The web of adult Herennia species is as a ladder-like in that it consists of vertically elongate parallel lines joined by multiple horizontal cross-lines with a solid silk. The hub-cap retreat incorporated into the web. So far no body has worked out or studied the habit, web pattern and parental care of H. multipunctata from this area and hence we have to decide to explore the diversity and unique characters of spider from this area.