Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

Abstract

A spider biodiversity study was conducted at Oak Lake Field Station, Brookings County, during the summers of 2003 and 2004 in order to collect and inventory spider families found in eastern South Dakota. Pitfall traps were set at nine site locations with the following categorized habitats: lakeside elevated woodland, midslope woodland, mesic meadow, xeric prairie, xeric exotic-grass prairie, and coniferous windbreak. A total of 1053 specimens were identified, representing 49 genera in the following 21 families: Agelenidae, Amaurobiidae, Araneidae, Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Cybaeidae, Dictynidae, Gnaphosidae, Linyphiidae, Liocranidae, Lycosidae, Micryphantidae, Nesticidae, Oxyopidae, Philodromidae, Pholcidae, Pisauridae, Salticidae, Tetragnathidae, Theridiidae, and Thomisidae. The ratio of males (47.2%) to females (47.4%) collected was near equal. The mesic meadow was sampled both years, and in 2004 the area was subjected to a prescribed burn resulting in a lower number of spiders collected and a lower diversity of spider families. The coniferous windbreak site yielded high numbers of wolf spiders (Lycosidae) relative to other sites. Combined data show a clear pattern in weekly capture rates, with numbers steadily decreasing throughout the summer. Nine families previously unrecorded from South Dakota were collected. The spider fauna of eastern South Dakota is considered incompletely inventoried, even at the family level, and continued efforts are expected to prove productive and informative.

Publication Title

Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science

Volume

84

First Page

171

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