Effect of Organic and Conventional Farming on the Activity of Spider Assemblage (Araneae) in Some Medicinal Plants in Fayoum-Egypt

Abstract

Spider activity occurred on three medicinal plants (Wormwood, Chrysanthemum and Spearmint) with organic and inorganic fertility was assessed using pitfall traps in Fayoum, Egypt. Community composition of the organic and the conventional cultivation of collected spiders were determined throughout the period of study using the Shannon-Wiener and Simpson Indices of diversity. Totals of 387 and 350 individuals including 20 and 24 species in the organic and the conventional cultivation, respectively, were of higher diversity index in the conventional system. According to Simpson, it was found that organic cultivation included the highest number of dominant species. Most species caught belonged to the family Lycosidae with especial high captures of Wadicosa fidelis and Pardosa species. Sorensen Quotient of Similarity concluded that the two communities were nearly approximate, as they recorded 64 % of similarity. The monthly fluctuation of the total number of spiders showed high population in March.

Effect of vegetation type and cultivation method on occurrence, diversity and dominance of spiders and other arthropods in Chia and Quinoa.

“…considered "eudominant", W. fidelis was "dominant". Similar result was obtained by (Rizk et al, 2015) who found that W. fideles, and Pardosa spp. ranged between "eudominant" and "dominant" according to Weigmann classification of dominance.…”

“…This result coincide with (Bengtsson et al, 2005;and Schmidt et al, 2005) who indicated that organic farming increases species richness and densities. Lycosidae was most abundant family, (Feber et al, 1998;Tahir and Butt, 2009;and Rizk et al, 2015) were reported that Lycosidae was the most abundant family. Lycosidae was considered "constant" (66.19 and 60.08%) in chia and (50.23 and 57.77%) in quinoa for conventional and organic cultivation respectively.…”