Spiders of Odisha: a preliminary checklist

The present checklist of spiders of Odisha is the result of the compilation of all published literature on spiders and primary data collected during the present study carried out from July 2016 to March 2017 in Odisha. A total of 138 species of spiders belonging to 95 genera and 33 families were recorded in the present study. Of which, seven families, 36 genera and 80 species of spiders were reported for the first time from Odisha. Of these 80 species, 78 spider species were exclusively reported from the Eastern Ghats of Odisha. With this study, spider diversity of Odisha comprised of 248 species belonging to 139 genera and 39 families. Whereas, Eastern Ghats of Odisha comprised of 181 species belonging to 109 genera and 35 families. Of total spiders from Odisha, 23 species were found to be endemic to southern Asia, 49 species endemic to India and 19 species endemic to Odisha.


Communication Spiders of Odisha: a preliminary checklist
Sudhir Ranjan Choudhury, Manju Siliwal & Sanjay Keshari Das 26 July 2019 | Vol. 11 | No. 9 | Pages: 14144-14157 DOI: 10.11609/jott.3786.11.9.14144-14157 INTRODUCTION Spiders represent one of the most diversified groups amongst invertebrates and are ranked seventh in the global biodiversity, with 48,143 species under 4,131 genera and 117 families described from the World (Penney et al. 2003;WSC 2019). About 1,909 species belonging to 488 genera and 64 different families have been reported from India (WSC 2019), of which, about 115 species in 33 genera and eight families are of mygalomorph spiders and the rest of the species are of araneomorph spiders (WSC 2019). This number is very much underestimated and many more species are waiting to be discovered in the country because till date spider studies in India have been restricted to a few areas in the absence of systematic spider surveys for most of the states in India (Sebastian & Peter 2009).

Study area
The present study was carried out mainly in the Eastern Ghats of Odisha with a few surveys outside the Eastern Ghats (Fig. 1, Table 1).
The Eastern Ghats represent a discontinuous range of mountains (also known as Malyadri) situated along the eastern coast of India and is one of the important physiographic units with great environmental, socioeconomic, cultural and spiritual significance in the peninsular region of our country (Sinha 1971). The Eastern Ghats start in West Bengal and the mountain range continues to pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The Eastern Ghats of Odisha ( Fig. 1) represent the northern Eastern Ghats. Based on geological and tectonic considerations, the Eastern Ghats in Odisha start from north of Similipal in Mayurbhanj District and run through Malkangiri covering 18 districts of Odisha (Dash et al. 2009). Mountain peaks and foot hills have contrasted weather resulting into a humid habitat in high altitudes to a semiarid habitat in foot hills. Vegetation of this region comes under the northern tropical moist deciduous forests. Physio-geographically, this region is divided into five sub regions: 1. the Similipal and Meghasani mountain, 2. the Mankarnacha-Malaygiri and Gandhamardan mountains of the Baitarani and the Brahmani interfluve, 3. the watershed between the Brahmani and the Mahanadi, 4. the common interfluves of the Mahanadi, the Rushikulya and the Vamsadhara, and 5. the Potangi and Chandragiri mountain ranges. The highest mountain peak is Deomali (1672m), which is situated in the Koraput District of southern Odisha. It is part of the Chandragiri-Pottangi mountain system that forms part of the Indian Peninsula and was a part of the ancient land mass of Gondwana land. Being physio-geographically heterogeneous, the Eastern Ghats of Odisha represent one of the biodiversity-important ecoregion. It is also rich in iron ore and minerals and supports a rich ethnic diversity (Sinha 1971;Dash et al. 2009).

Methods
Spider collection was done from July 2016 to March 2017 covering all seasons (monsoon: July to October; winter: November to February; and summer: March to June). Various sampling methods, viz., vegetation beating, pitfall trapping, sweep-netting, hand-picking, and leaf litter sampling (Koh & Ming 2013) were used to collect spiders. Two to four persons were engaged in active searching for spiders and a total of 1,000 manhours were spent on collecting spiders in the study area during the entire study period. All possible habitats, viz., dense forest, open forest, wetlands, scrub lands, hill forests, agricultural fields and human settlements were covered in the present study. Specimens, after collecting were preserved in 70% alcohol. All mygalomorph specimens were deposited at Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society (WILD) museum, Coimbatore and all araneomorph specimens were deposited at Indraprastha University (IPU) museum, Delhi. Spiders were identified examining the specimens under Olympus SZ10 stereozoom microscope. For identification, female genitalia were dissected and cleaned in concentrated lactic acid for 15-20 minutes. Identification was done using different publications by Tikader (1980Tikader ( , 1982Tikader ( , 1987, Tikader & Malhotra (1980), Barrion & Litsinger (1995), Song et al. (1999), Jocqué & Dippenaar-Schoeman (2006, Gajbe (2008), Sebastian &Peter (2009), andMetzner (2017).
Checklist of spiders of Odisha was prepared from the present study data and compiling the species from published literature (peer-reviewed journals) from the state on spiders. Papers published in predatory journals, or unpublished literature like Ph.D. thesis, postgraduation dissertations and newspaper articles were not included in the compilation of the present checklist.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Before the present study, 168 species of spiders belonging to 103 genera and 32 families were reported from Odisha and of these, 103 species belonging to 68 genera and 24 families were reported from Eastern Ghats of Odisha (Pickard-Cambridge 1891; Walsh 1891; Gravely 1921Gravely , 1931Biswas 1975Biswas , 1987Gajbe 1979; Panda et al. (2011) and Mohapatra et al. (2014), were probably identified based on photographs and seems to be a clear case of misidentification. So far, these species are known from outside India only. Hence, the present checklist did not consider these species in our checklist and these species need further taxonomic verification. During the present study, 138 species of spiders belonging to 95 genera and 33 families were reported from Odisha. Of which, seven families, 36 genera and 80 species of spiders were reported for the first time from Odisha. Of these 80 species, 78 spider species were exclusively reported from the Eastern Ghats of Odisha. Here, we would like to make a note that in the present checklist 77 spiders are identified only up to genus level only (Table 2).

Spiders of Odisha
Based on all the compilation of previous reports and data from present study, the spider diversity of Odisha comprises 248 species belonging to 139 genera and 39 families and Eastern Ghats of Odisha 181 species belonging to 109 genera and 35 families (Table 2; Fig. 2, Image 1A-L). The study shows that over 72% of spiders reported from Odisha are found in the Eastern Ghats of Odisha (Table 2) and hence, the Eastern Ghats contribute largely to the spider diversity of Odisha.
Among the spiders reported in the present study, Parasteatoda kompirensis (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) was reported for the first time from India (Malik et al. 2018) ( Table 2). The study also reported two rare spiders-Inthaeron spp.-from Odisha, which will be published in different paper. Amongst these spiders reported in Odisha, species richness of family Araneidae (45 spp.) was found to be highest followed by Salticidae (35 spp.) and Lycosidae (17 spp.) (Table 2; Fig. 2). Of the total spiders from Odisha, 23 species were found to be endemic to South Asia and 49 species endemic to India. Of the spiders endemic to India, 19 species are reported from Odisha State only (Table 2).
Though the present study was for a short period and mostly restricted to the Eastern Ghats of Odisha, the findings of this study are significant, as during the study, 80 species for Odisha and one for India were added to the existing list for the first time. Therefore, there is a need to carry out systematic surveys in the entire state covering all the seasons to get an optimum estimate of spider diversity.   Gajbe, 1979Gajbe 1979Tikader 1982;Biswas 1987 #, E O 88 Sosticus sundargarhensis Gajbe, 1979Gajbe 1979Tikader 1982;Biswas 1987 E O