Impact of urbanization on population dynamics of spider species in Bangalore
Ramakrishnaiah. T. N, Jayaprakash and S.Ramakrishna
Spiders are the largest order of Arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other orders of Arthropods. The present study was conducted to determine the impact of urbanization and climatic change on the spider population in the ever changing Bangalore’s landscapes. Spiders were sampled from August 2013 to March 2014, approximately 25 random samples were collected, identified, and analysed with meteorological variables. Significant relationships were observed in the distribution of spider species between habitats with respect to urbanized and semi-urbanized landscapes. A significant decline in the number of spider species correlated with loss habitat due to increase in temperature. We conclude that urbanization and climatic changes affects not only the survival of particular spider species, but also the habitat to which they are associated.
Fig. 1: Distribution of collection points in Bangalore.
Ramakrishnaiah. T. N, Jayaprakash, S.Ramakrishna. Impact of urbanization on population dynamics of spider species in Bangalore. J Entomol Zool Stud 2014;2(6):336-339.