Checklist of the First Recorded Spider Fauna in Sheringal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Numan  Khan; Farzana  Perveen

doi:10.4236/ae.2015.33011

Farzana Perveen^*, Numan Khan

Abstract: The spiders are the member of the class Arachnida of the phylum Arthropoda with a hard cephalothorax and soft abdomen. They are environmental indicators and play an important role in biological control of insect population. The present study was conducted to prepare the checklist of the first recorded spider fauna of the 6 quadrates, i.e., Daramdala, Doki, Guryaal, Samang, Shahoor and Sia-Sheringal of Sheringal, Dir Upper (DU), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan during June 2013-July 2014. Ten species (spp) belonging to 7 families, and 10 genera (n = 123: total; n = 77: identified; n = 46: unidentified) were recorded. The family Opilionidae (n = 12): harvestmen spider, Hadrobunus grandis Sundevall, 1833; family, Hersiliidae (n = 6): two-tailed spider, Harsilia savignyi Lucas, 1836; family, Pholcidae (n = 10): cellar spider, Crossopriza lyoni Blackwall, 1867; family, Araneidae (n = 5): garden spider, Araneus diadematus Clerck, 1757; family, Gnaphosidae (n = 3): ground spider, Gnaphosa eucalyptus Ghafoor and Beg, 2002 were with one species; family, Sparassidae (n = 19), huntsman spider with 2 spp including Halconia insignis Thorell, 1836, and Isopeda tuhogniga Barrion and Litsinger, 1995; while the highest number of species caught from family Lycosidae (n = 20): wolf spider with 3 spp including Arctosa littorali Simon, 1897; Hippasa partita Takidar, 1970 and Pardosa distincta Backwall, 1867 were recorded. It was concluded that 7 families with 10 genera and species each, respectively, were identified from the study area. A detail study is required for further enhancing of the biodiversity of the spider fauna of Sheringal, KP, Pakistan for synthesis of the ethnozoopharmaco-products.

Keywords: Arachnida, Cephalothorax, Lycosidae, Sparassidae, Spider Fauna

Cite this paper: Perveen, F. and Khan, N. (2015) Checklist of the First Recorded Spider Fauna in Sheringal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Advances in Entomology, 3, 94-100. doi: 10.4236/ae.2015.33011.

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