Diversity of spiders in coffee agro-ecosystem of Western Ghats in Karnataka, India | JBES 2020

Spiders survey study was conducted in coffee agro-ecosystems of Muthodi and Chikholale and residential area of Chikmagaluru town for six months from January- June 2019.Altogether 105 individuals representing 12 families and 30 species were documented. Among them 8 families from Muthodi coffee agroecosystem, 6 families from Chikholale coffee agroecosystem, out of them 5 families were same. In Residential area 7 families were documented, out which 4 families are same as coffee agroecosystem and 3 families are different i.e., Agelenidae, Sparassidae and Hersilidae families. Spiders of 12 families were divided into eight functional groups (guilds) based on their foraging behavior in the field. The most dominant guild was the orb weavers (45%) comprised of 13 species representing 5 families, among them family Araneidae representing 11 species.