Seasonal variation and demography of Leprolochus birabeni Mello-Leitão, 1942 (Araneae: Zodariidae) in environments of Chaco Serrano of Northwestern Argentina.

TORRES VÍCTOR MANUEL; RODRÍGUEZ ARTIGAS SANDRA; GONZÁLEZ REYES, ANDREA X; CORRONCA, J. A.

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMAN

Jornada; XXXI Jornadas Científicas de la Asociación de Biología de Tucumán. Del 24 al 26 de Septiembre de 2014; 2014

Asociación de Biología de Tucumán

The Chaco Serrano is a highly disturbed ecoregion and one of the few with dry subtropical forests in the world, so its studyand conservation are essential. Among arachnids, spiders are considered indicators of environmental quality because theircommunities are strongly influenced by the type of habitat. Zodariidae family is mainly present in tropical and subtropicalareas. L. birabeni Mello-Leitão, 1942 is a myrmecophagic species distributed from North Brazil to Central region ofArgentina, and it is very common in Chaco and Argentinian Monte. The aim of this study is to characterize the demographyand the seasonal variation of L. birabeni in different environments of Chaco Serrano of Salta province. Seasonal samplings(2006-2007) were performed using pitfall traps in three environments: NA (native sites), NG (native sites affected by cattleand goats), and NC (native patches surrounded by crops). We collected 531 spiders with the juveniles reaching 65% of totalabundance, followed by males (25%) and females (10%). Spring and summer had the highest abundance with 46.3% and28.4%, respectively. L. birabeni showed the highest abundance in NA representing the 42.37% of total abundance, followedby the NG 32.96% and the NC 24.67%. Likewise, the number of juveniles and females decreased from NA>NG>NC, whilethe abundance of males was at its lowest in NG (nNG=27), and was similar in NA and NC (nNA=53, nNC=57). These resultssuggest that seasonality influences the abundance of this species in the study area, in addition to the land use. These resultsprovide basic information for future studies to test if this species will be useful as a possible indicator of the conservationstatus of Chaco Serrano.