23 Kas 2024 Cumartesi
Survey on spider faunal diversity of Darjeeling Tea Plantations
Abstract :Effect
of pesticides in the crop fields is now well known. Tea is no exception to
this. Idea behind the present study is to appreciate the biological potential
of spiders against tea pests. The study area included 6 tea estates viz.
Badamtam T.E., Ging T.E., Salim Hill T.E. (organic), Castleton T.E., Namring
T.E., and Thurbo T.E. (conventional). Altogether 85 species under 52 genera
distributed over 18 families could be recorded. These can broadly be
categorized into 7 trophic groups. The decreasing order of the groups are Orb
weavers (48.24%) ˃ Ambushers (22.35%) ˃ Ground dwellers
(11.76%) ≥ Stalkers (11.76%) ˃ Foliage hunters (9.41%) ˃
Sheet web weavers (2.35%) ˃ Space web builders (1.18%).
Out of the total species encountered 1 species is considered new to world, 4
species from the country, 1 from the state and 36 species from the study area.
Based on the species richness, the decreasing order of the tea estates are BTE (61.18%) ˃
NTE (54.12%) ˃ GTE (51.76%) ˃
STE (12.35%) ˃ CTE (28.24%) ˃
TTE (25.88%). This leads to infer ‘organic
tea system’ exhibits higher spider heterogeneity. Araneids and salticids are
the dominant groups. Other than the Oriental representatives, Australian and
Palaearctic are the next major groups. Nearly 32.94% of the species are found
to be endemic
Spider
fauna, diversity, tea plantations, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India