Abstract:

Spider communities of three neighboring grasslands (upland, lowland and steppe meadows) of Moscow Region (Prioksko-Terrasnyi Nature Reserve) were studied in 2014. Totally, 128 species from 86 genera and 18 families were collected. The taxonomic composition both epigeic and hortobiont spider communities of three meadows significantly differ from each other. In steppe meadows predominate xerophilous spider species, mesophilous species in lowland ones, and in the upland meadows highly dense hygrophilous and mesophilous species. However, the taxonomic composition of the steppe meadow was much closer to the lowland one than to upland meadow. The activity density didn’t differ significantly between three meadows, but herpetobiont spider density was significantly higher in steppe and lowland meadow, than in upland one. The spider assemblage of steppe meadow stands out of other grasslands with its high specificity, and the spider assembly has distinct features of true steppe. Keywords: Soil invertebrates; Arthropoda; diversity; Prioksko-Terrasnyi Nature Reserve; steppe meadow; sweeping; pitfalls References: Chernov, Y. I., & Rudenskaya, L. V. (1970). On using of entomological sweeping in quantitative sampling of invertebrates inhabiting vegetation. Zoologicheskiy Zhurnal, 69, 137-143. Danilov, V. I., Kerzhentsev, A. S., & Klevanik, S. N. (1981). Geobotanical and soil investigations of the Doly tract. Pochvenno-biogeocenoticheskie issledovaniya tsentra Russkoy ravniny. ONTI NCBI, Puschino: 4-37 [in Russian]. Gilyarov, M. S. (1987). Sampling of large invertebrates (mezofauna). Quantitative methods in Zoology. Moscow: Nauka Publ. Malyshev, A. M. (1948). The Annals of Nature of Prioksko-Terrasnyi Nature Reseve, Danki. Nentwig, W., Blick, T., Gloor, D., Hänggi, A., & Kropf, C. (2018). Spiders of Europe. www.araneae.nmbe.ch. Version of 01.2018. Palmer, M. (2018). The ordination methods for ecologists, http://ordination.okstate.edu Polchaninova, N. Yu. (2009). Spiders (Araneae) of the Streletsky part of the Tsentralno-Chernozemny Nature Reserve (Kursk Region). Caucasian Entomological Bulletin, 5, 1, 13-27. Polchaninova, N. Yu. (2012). Changes of steppe araneokompleks under the influence of regime activities in the reserves of Ukraine and Russia. Regimes of steppe especially protected natural territories. Materials of the international scientific-practical conference. Kursk, 156-159. Prokopenko, E. V., & Zhukov, A. V. (2010). The structure of the spider (Aranei) community of the steppe virgin land in Yatsev Yar (Dnepropetrovsk Region). Problemi ecologii ta ohoroni prirodi tehnogennogo regionu. 1,10,151-157. Seyfulina, R. R. (2015). Spider distribution (Arachnida, Aranei) in the Prioksko-Terrasnyi Nature reserve. Proceedings of the Prioksko-Terrasnyi Nature Reserve, 6, 161-177. Seyfulina, R. R. (2017). Contribution to the spider fauna (Arachnida: Aranei) of Russia, new records from Moscow Area. Arthropoda Selecta, 26, 1, 67-76. Smirnov, P. A. (1958). Flora Lushkensis. Proceedings of the Prioksko-Terrasnyi Nature Reserve, 2, 1-246. Southwood, T. R. E (1978). Ecological methods. Chapman and Hall, London: 253 pp. Topping, C. J., & Sunderland, K. D. (1992). Limitations to the use of pitfall traps in ecological studies exemplified by a study of spiders in a field of winter wheat. Journal of Applied Ecology, 29, 2, 485-491. Zelenskaya, N. N., Son, B. K., Bykhovets, S. S., Brynskikh, M. N., & Kerzhentsev, A. S. (2016). Temperature conditions of cevelopment of meadow-steppe and forest vegetation on banks in the middle course of the Oka River. Izvestiya RAN. Seriya Geograficheskaya, 4, 79-89.  

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