An updated checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Rajasthan, India

Abstract

In this review, an updated checklist of spider diversity in Rajasthan, India is presented. A total of 173 spider species from 90 genera belonging to 25 families are listed with records/descriptions originating from only 20 out of 33 districts of Rajasthan. A total of 74 taxa recorded from various districts of Rajasthan were identified only up to generic level. The maximum number of spider species were recorded from Jodhpur district (72 species), followed by Ajmer (69 species), Bharatpur (66 species), Pali (63 species), Jaipur (58 species), Dholpur and Karauli (38 species each), Jhunjhunu and Sikar (31 species each), Sri Ganga Nagar (26 species), Hanumangarh (25 species), and Jaisalmer (26 species). A fewer number of species are known from other districts. Thus far, no faunal surveys of spiders have been conducted in 13 districts of Rajasthan. Most of the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, forest areas, agricultural fields, human dwellings, etc. within the state still await intensive and extensive surveys to record the spider fauna.

Updated Checklist of Spider Diversity (Arachnida: Araneae) in Two Union Territories of Northwest India: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh

“…The conservation status of 99.5% of the spider species has not yet been evaluated by the IUCN globally (Seppälä et al, 2018). Despite recent research works on the diversity and distribution of spiders in India, their number is insufficient as compared to the other parts of the world (Singh, 2022b).…”

“…The survey of the literature revealed that the existing information on the spider diversity in two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are scattered and more than half of the areas have not yet been surveyed for faunal distribution of spiders. Recently, the checklist of spider fauna have been reported from Indian States such as --Andhra Pradesh (Singh and Sharma, 2022a), Bihar and Jharkhand (Singh and Singh, 2021b), Chhattisgarh (Singh and Singh, 2021c), Goa , Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi (Singh and Singh, 2021d), Karnataka (Singh, 2022b), Madhya Pradesh (Singh and Sharma, 2022b), Maharashtra (Singh, 2022a), Odisha (Singh, 2022c), northeast India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura) (Singh and Singh, 2021e), Rajasthan , Telangana (Singh and Sharma, 2022c), Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshdweep (Singh and Singh, 2022d).…”