Alopecosa psammophila Buchar, 2001 (Araneae: Lycosidae): morphometricdata and first record for Romania

Abstract

Sandy grasslands are the home of many rare and specialized invertebrate species (e.g., Schuch et al., 2012;Horváth et al., 2013), but the preservation of these ecosystems requires active management measures represented mainly by grazing, mowing, and burning (Bell et al., 2001). In order to track the effects of management activities, indicators are needed, and spiders are good candidates in this respect. A certain composition of the spider community corresponds to each successional stage of the vegetation (Merkens, 2002), able to mirror the type and quality of the habitat (Buchholz, 2010). Spiders react sensitively to the type and intensity of management actions, with habitat specialist species often requiring distinct measures (Bell et al., 2001).Lycosidae is the fourth largest spider family in the world (Platnick, 2014), and the genus Alopecosa Simon, 1885, with 150 described species (Platnick, 2014), is among the most species-rich genera of the family. Within this genus, Alopecosa psammophila Buchar, 2001, originally described from sandy habitats of southern Moravia and southern Slovakia (Buchar, 2001), is a very rare species identified so far in only 4 countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia (Buchar, 2001), Hungary (Szinetár et al., 2005, and Russia (Esyunin et al., 2007). In the Czech Republic, it is even included on the list of threatened species (invertebrates) as critically endangered (Růžička, 2005).

Road-killed ground beetles prove the presence of Carabus hungaricus (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in North-Western Romania

“…Therefore, many species mentioned on the sand dunes from Nyirség were also recorded in Nirului Plain (e.g. Covaciu-Marcov et al, 2009;Sas-Kovács et al, 2015). It is considered that some of the thermophilous steppe species have arrived in the Great Hungarian Plain through the Lower Danube Corridor (Magyari et al, 2010).…”

Diversity of soil spiders in land use and management systems in Santa Catarina, Brazil

“…Spiders are active predators and directly help to control populations, maintaining the balance of the ecosystems. However, the effect of human action on the landscapes has led to increasing losses in biodiversity on many scales, both vegetal and animal (Kovács-Hostyánszki et al 2013, Sas-Kovács et al 2015.…”