Editors

Matt Hill

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-23-2020

Publication Title

NeoBiota

Volume

55

First page number:

1

Last page number:

9

Abstract

We assessed how assemblages of spiders were structured in small Hawaiian tropical forest fragments (Hawaiian, kipuka) within a matrix of previous lava flows, over both space (sampling kipuka of different sizes) and time (comparison with a similar study from 1998). Standardized hand-collection by night was carried out in May 2016. In total, 702 spiders were collected, representing 6 families and 25 (morpho-)species. We found that the number of individuals, but not species richness, was highly correlated with the area of sampled forest fragments, suggesting that kipuka act as separate habitat islands for these predatory arthropods. Species richness was significantly lower in the lava matrix outside the kipuka compared to the kipuka habitats, although there was no statistical difference in species composition between the two habitats, largely because of similarity of non-native species in both habitats. Over the last 20 years, the abundance of non-native spider species substantially increased in both kipuka and lava habitats, in marked contrast to the vegetation that has remained more intact. With endemicity of terrestrial arthropods reaching over 95% in native forests, non-native predatory species present a critical challenge to the endemic fauna.

Keywords

Araneae, Diachronic study, Island

Disciplines

Entomology | Forest Sciences

File Format

pdf

File Size

445 KB

Language

English

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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