Ground Fauna of Spiders (Aranei) in Anthropogenically Modified and Adjacent Natural Landscapes of Eastern Donbass (Rostov Region, Russia)

Abstract

Data are presented on the distribution of spiders in plant communities of the Eastern Donbass (Rostov Region, Russia). The following plant communities were surveyed: an exhausted stone quarry, an artificial oak grove, а shelterbelt, a site of petrophytic steppe, a pine stand, forests growing on river terraces, an artificial broadleaf forest, and a floodplain forest. A total of 129 species belonging to 23 families were identified. Families with the highest species composition diversity include Gnaphosidae (35 species), Lycosidae (16 species), and Salticidae (14 species). The highest species diversity was observed in the exhausted stone quarry and the artificial oak grove (each with 49 species). The fauna of spiders is impoverished in the shelter belt (15 species) and in the petrophytic steppe site (12 species). Rare and locally distributed species in southern Russia were recorded, including Gnaphosa licenti Schenkel, 1953, Zelotes occultus Tuneva et Esyunin, 2003, Sintula spiniger (Balogh, 1935), Pholodromus albidus Kulczyński, 1911, Phrurolithus minimus C.L. Koch, 1839, Aelurillus laniger Logunov et Marusik, 2000, Attulus penicillatus (Simon, 1875), Pellenes brevis (Simon, 1868), Zodarion morosum Denis, 1935.