Diversity Assessment of Spider Communities (Arachnida: Araneae) across Different Habitat Types in Chhattisgarh, India: Implications for Conservation and Bioindicator Potential
Urwashi Chandrakar *
Department of Bioscience, School of Science, MATS University Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India.
Aparna Jha
Department of Bioscience, MATS University Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Spiders (Order: Araneai) are one of the most diverse and ecologically important arthropods as significant bioindicators of natural environmental health and natural pest checkers in the earth ecosystem. This study provides an in-depth evaluation of spider diversity in three different districts of Chhattisgarh in India - Gariyaband (forest/hilly area), Mahasamund (mixed forest-agriculture) and Raipur (urban/semi-urban) - during a 12-month season (July 2023 to June 2024). Systematic sampling methods such as pitfall traps, sweep netting and visual encounter survey were used to record 5,137 individuals of 57 species of spiders. Alpha diversity indices showed that there was a lot of variation among the districts, with Gariyaband having the highest species richness (S=59), Shannon-Wiener diversity (H'=4.057) and total abundance (N=2,082), followed by Mahasamund (S=46, H'=3.806, N=1,672) and Raipur (S=36, H'=3.565, N=1,383). One-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference in the abundance of months between the districts with a high level of significance (F=54.423, p<0.001). Beta diversity analysis based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and Jaccard similarity indices revealed that there was moderate community differentiation, with the Gariyaband and Mahasamund having the highest similarity (Jaccard Index=0.789). The analysis of seasonal variation showed that the abundance was high during the post-monsoon/winter in all the districts. The results show that habitat heterogeneity and anthropogenic disturbance have a significant effect on the structure of spider communities, which supports the possible use of spiders as valid bioindicators to monitor the ecosystem in Central India.
Keywords: Spider diversity, Chhattisgarh, alpha diversity, beta diversity, bioindicators, habitat disturbance, conservation, seasonal variation