Diversity and abundance of spider fauna of agro-ecosystems: A case sudy of Mahabubnagar district, Telangana state

The present study mainly focused on the diversity of spider fauna in the agro-ecosystem of Mahabubnagar district during the Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2020-21. The sampling was collected at monthly intervals by different methods (in situ counts, net sweeping, pitfall traps and litter sampling). A total of 30 spider species were identified of which, Araneidae family is represented by 8 species belonging to four genera followed by the Salticidae family (5 species), Oxyopidae (4 species), Lycosidae and Pholcidae (3 species), Thomisidae (2 species) Gnaphosidae, Hersillidae, Sparassidae and Tetragnathidae represented by one species, respectively. The diversity indices viz., Shannon-Weiner Index (2.785- Kharif season and 2.752-Rabi season), Simpson Index (0.912-Kharif season and 0.899 Rabi season), Margalef Index (4.122- Kharif season and 4.25- Rabi season) and Pielou’s Index (0.104 Kharif season and 0.09 Rabi season) were calculated.