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South African National Survey of Arachnida: A checklist of the spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) of the Lekgalameetse Nature Reserve, Limpopo province, South Africa

Stefan H. Foord, Anna S. Dippenaar-Schoeman, Rudy Jocqué, Charles R. Haddad, Robin Lyle, Peter Webb
Koedoe | Vol 58, No 1 | a1405 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v58i1.1405 | © 2016 Stefan H. Foord, Anna S. Dippenaar-Schoeman, Rudy Jocqué, Charles R. Haddad, Robin Lyle, Peter Webb | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 02 May 2016 | Published: 16 November 2016

About the author(s)

Stefan H. Foord, Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Venda, South Africa
Anna S. Dippenaar-Schoeman, ARC – Plant Protection Research Institute, Queenswood; Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Rudy Jocqué, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
Charles R. Haddad, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, South Africa
Robin Lyle, ARC – Plant Protection Research Institute, Queenswood, South Africa
Peter Webb, South African National Survey of Arachnida, Irene, South Africa

Abstract

The aim of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA) is to document the Arachnida fauna of South Africa. One of the focus areas of SANSA is to survey protected areas to obtain species-specific information, and species distribution patterns for Red Data assessments. Here, we provide the first checklist of the spider species of Lekgalameetse Nature Reserve (LNR) in the Limpopo province of South Africa collected during five surveys between 2009 and 2016 using methods targeting both the ground and field layers. Forty-five families, represented by 168 genera and 268 species, have been collected so far. The most species-rich families were the Salticidae (41 spp.) and Araneidae (38 spp.), followed by the Thomisidae (33 spp.), while 11 families were represented by one species. Information on spider guilds, endemicity value and conservation status are provided. The LNR protects approximately 12.2% of the total South African spider fauna. Two species, Hasarinella distincta Haddad & Wesołowska, 2013 (Salticidae) and Ballomma legala Jocqué & Henrard, 2015 (Zodariidae), are presently known to be endemic to the reserve.

Conservation implications: The LNR falls within the Savanna Biome in the Limpopo province. Only five spider species were previously known from the reserve and 263 spp. are reported from the reserve for the first time. Thirteen species are possibly new to science and 2 species represent new distribution records for South Africa.


Keywords

Protected areas; Invertebrate surveys; Biodiversity

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