in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

The Taxonomy and Conservation Status of the Spiders(Arachnida: Araneae) in Sri LankaSuresh P. Benjamin 1 , Ranil P. Nanayakkara 2 , Salindra K. Dayananda 31Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), Hantana Road, Kandy2Biodiversity Education and Research,3Foundation for Nature Conservation and Preservation, PanaduraIntroductionSpiders are found all over the world and have colonized almost all habitats. Most species ofspiders are relatively small in size (around 2-10 mm in body length) while a few species mayreach up to 90mm in size (Foelix, 2011). Platnick (2011) has compiled a catalog of all the spidersrecorded to date which stands at, approximately, 42,000 species that belongs to 110 families.However, this is only a small fraction of the true diversity of this order as the spider fauna of mostcountries remains grossly understudied. The situation is the same in Sri Lanka that supportsa highly diverse spider assemblage. To date, 501 species representing 48 families have beenlisted for Sri Lanka, including 256 (51.09%) endemic species (Platnick, 2011). Further, 11species (not included in the list) that are only identified upto genus level are also found in SriLanka which includes an additional family Deinopidae. However, this figure is likely to be a grossunderestimate as spiders are perhaps one of the least studied invertebrate groups in Sri Lanka,even though they are one of the most conspicuous elements of the Sri Lankan forest landscape(Benjamin and Bambaradeniya, 2006).The exploration of Sri Lankan spider fauna began with the work of Pickard-Cambridge (1869),followed mainly by species descriptions by the French Arachnologist E. Simon who visited theisland in 1892 to collect spiders (Pethiyagoda, 2007). Sri Lankan species have been regularlyincluded in taxonomic revision of genera and families. However, the exclusive study of SriLanka spider fauna only began in the early 1990s (Benjamin and Bambaradeniya, 2006).Currently, the Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS) is conducting an island-wide survey ofspiders. As this is a daunting task, the immediate focus is to make a complete collection ofspiders that will form the basis for future detailed taxonomic studies.TaxonomyAfter the work done by early arachnologists such as Pickard-Cambridge, Pocock and Simon,there has been little interest in spider taxonomy of Sri Lanka. The work on Sri Lankan spiderswas reinitiated in 1970s when investigations had been carried out on few selected spiderfamilies (Brignoli, 1972, 1975: Van Helsdingen, 1985). Wijesinghe (1987) has reviewed thespiders of Sri Lanka and prepared a preliminary checklist comprising of 402 species. Duringthe last decade much has been done on spiders of Sri Lanka that has resulted in the revisionof several genera and description of few new species (Benjamin, 2006; Benjamin, 2010;Benjamin and Jaleel, 2010; Kronestedt, 2010; Platnick et al., 2011). Further, these studiesalso indicated that older nominal species need to be revised and re-described (Benjamin &Hormiga, 2009; Dimitrov et al., 2009; Álvarez-Padilla & Benjamin, 2011). A comprehensive listof recent publications related to Sri Lankan spiders is given in Platnick (2011) and Benjamin(2006).42