Asian Biological Research Foundation, Prayagraj, India Nature Light Publications 309 West 11, Manjari VSI Road, Manjari Budruk, Tal. – Haveli, Dist.- Pune, Pin 412307, 2023
The spiders (Arthropoda: Chelicerata: Arachnida: Araneae) are an exceedingly precious component o... more The spiders (Arthropoda: Chelicerata: Arachnida: Araneae) are an exceedingly precious component of the earth’s ecosystem. They are predatory in feeding habit consuming mostly insects keeping their population under check and hardly pose any danger to humans. They also serve as ecological indicators owing to their extreme sensitivity against their habitat disturbances. The “Spider Fauna of India” is a database that provides a catalogue of known species of spiders distributed in different states and union territories of India. About 123 years ago, the first consolidated volume on the entire Arachnida was published by Pocock (1900) in the “Fauna of British India” series listing only 200 species of spiders. After this, the Indian authors catalogued known species of spiders giving their morphological characteristics and identification keys along with their biology and ecology. After independence, Tikader, B.K. and his associates of Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata have catalogued the spider species belonging to the families Lycosidae (Tikader & Malhotra, 1980), Thomisidae (Tikader, 1980), Araneidae and Gnaphosidae (Tikader, 1982), and Oxyopidae (Gajbe, 2008). Simultaneously, the spider fauna of different ecozones of India were prepared by a number of arachnologists of the country. Tikader (1987) published the comprehensive list of Indian spiders which included 1067 species belonging to 249 genera in 43 families. Keswani and his colleagues (2012) prepared a checklist of spider fauna of India and mentioned 1,686 species of spiders belonging to 438 genera in 60 families. Since then, hundreds of new species are described/recorded. Also, several nomenclatural modifications at the level of species to family have been made. In the recent years, the first author and his research scholars updated the checklist of spider fauna of India both family-wise and state/union territories-wise. In the present book, a total of 2,245 species belonging to 563 genera and 65 families are listed. A comprehensive bibliography is also given at the end. The checklist may inadvertently contain some percentage of errors in the identifications of the spiders distributed in different regions by some researchers. Seemingly, doubtful and erroneous species of spiders are listed separately at the end of the book. For valid scientific names of the spiders World Spider Catalog (http://wsc.nmbe.ch) is followed.
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