Corresponding authors: Ana Munévar (
Academic editor: Emma McCarroll Shaw
The semideciduous Atlantic Forest is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world with a great diversity of spiders. Most spider-related studies in this ecosystem focused on species richness and composition; however, little is known about their trait diversity (including morphological, ecological and/or physiological traits). Two main datasets were compiled to generate a complete record of spider traits for this ecosystem.
Here, we present two datasets about 259 species of spiders from the semideciduous Atlantic Forest of Argentina. The trait data set compiled information of morphological and ecological traits such as body size, femur length, ocular distance, foraging strategy, prey range, circadian activity and stratum preference; traits were assessed by species considering sexual dimorphism. The second dataset included information about phenology (season when spiders were collected), number of individuals assessed by species and presence/absence of spiders in the different sample sites. This dataset has high potential to help researchers in recording the state of a component of biodiversity (functional) and contributes with the study of ecosystem services and species conservation.
The Atlantic Forest of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world; this biome hosts about 7% of the global known species richness and shows high levels of endemism (
Previous studies in the semideciduous Atlantic Forest have reported 550 species of spiders in Argentina (
In the Atlantic Rain Forest (northeast of Brazil),
Here, we present one of the most complete datasets of morphological and ecological traits for spiders inhabiting both native forests and pine plantations in the semideciduous Atlantic Forest of Argentina.
This study was performed in the semideciduous Atlantic Forest of Argentina, in Misiones province. This ecosystem presents an average annual precipitation of 2000 mm, without a dry season and average temperatures of 15°C in winter (June–August) and 25°C in summer (September–March) (
The native forest is composed of a complex and diverse vegetation, with three to five strata: three arboreal strata, a herbaceous stratum (50 cm high) composed of grasses and herbaceous plants and the lowest stratum dominated by mosses, saprophytes and terrestrial orchids (
Spider samples were collected from two habitats: areas of continuous native forest (Iguazú National Park, Urugua-í Provincial Park and private reserves) and areas devoted to forestry planted with the exotic conifer
All individuals used in this study were collected to estimate changes in the taxonomic and the functional diversity of spiders, due to the replacement of the native forest by pine plantations. Changes on taxonomic diversity were previously published in
All the individuals collected were preserved in alcohol (80%), counted and identified to the species level or morphospecies, using taxonomic literature (i.e.
Three morphological and four ecological spider traits were recorded (see below). These traits have been widely used in functional studies of arthropods due to their association with the natural history of the species and habitat use (
The morphological traits measured were: 1) body size, 2) femur length and 3) ocular distance (Table
The ecological traits were: 1) foraging strategy, 2) prey range, 3) circadian activity and 4) stratum preference (Table 1). All attributes of the traits were defined at family level using published literature (
The study area is located in northeast Argentina, in Misiones province. Coordinates show a polygon which encloses all sample sites (20 sites in total).
We collected a total of 15838 individuals. Only adults (32%) were identified to species/morphospecies level. We found a total of 368 species/morphospecies distributed in 38 families and 143 genera; the most species richness families were
About 26% of the species were collected in the native forest and 40% in pine plantations; 34% of the species were shared between both sites.
From the complete assemblage, 259 species/morphospecies were selected from native forests and/or pine plantations; functional traits, previously mentioned, were assessed in 951 individuals. Species were selected, based on the availability and quality of specimens; the remaining species (109 from the total assemblage) were not in optimal conditions for measurement (in general, only one individual was captured by species).
Rank | Scientific Name | Common Name |
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order |
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Spiders |
Creative Commons Public Domain Waiver (CC-Zero)
Semideciduous_Atlantic_Forest_Spiders
2
Traits_of_Spider
Tab delimited file (.csv)
Morphological and ecological traits of spider species in the semideciduous Atlantic Forest of Argentina.
Column label | Column description |
---|---|
Family | The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified. |
Scientific Name | The full scientific name. |
Sex | The sex of the biological individual(s). |
Body Size | Width and length of the prosoma and opisthosoma. |
Femur length | Length of femur I & IV. |
Ocular distance | Sum of diameters of one side eyes. |
Foraging strategy | Tube web, Sheet web weaver, Space web, Orb web, Aerial hunter and Active hunter. |
Prey range | Stenophagous, Euryophagous. |
Circadian activity | Diurnal, Nocturnal. |
Stratum preference | Ground (GR), Trunk (TR), Vegetation (VG). |
Ecological_data_of_spiders_communities_present_in_native_forest_and_pine_plantations.
Tab delimited file (.csv)
Dataset with presence/absence of species in each habitat type (native forests and pine plantations of different ages), number of individuals assessed, phenology (season collected) and collection method for spiders inhabiting the semi-deciduous Atlantic Forest of Argentina.
Column label | Column description |
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InstitutionCode | The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. |
CollectionID | An identifier for the collection or dataset from which the record was derived. |
Scientific Name | The full scientific name, with authorship and date information, if known. |
No. Individuals Measured | Number of individuals measured by species. |
Presence/Absence Matrix | Presence/absence matrix of species collected in all sample sites (native forest, mature plantations, middle age plantation and young plantation). |
Phenology | Seasons of spider collection: 1= winter, 2= autumn, 3= spring, 4= summer. |
Collection Method | Collection methods used to capture spiders by stratum. Pitfall trap = ground, Winkler = litter layer, Entomological vacuum (G-VAC) = herbaceous stratum (0-50 cm of height), Minor beating = shrubs (50 cm-2 m of height) and Major beating = low arboreal stratum (2-6 m of height). |
We are grateful to Gonzalo Rubio, Cristian Grismado, Maria Eugenia Gonzalez, Luis Piacentini, Ivan Magalhaes and Martín Ramírez from the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Buenos Aires, Argentina, who provided invaluable help during species identification. In addition, The Administration of National Parks (Argentina) for granting the necessary permissions and equipment to develop this project. To all members of the Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe) for your support, and to reviewers for their comments on previous versions that allowed the improvement of this manuscript.
Species richness of spiders by family collected in native forests and pine plantations within the semideciduous Atlantic Forest of Argentina.
Traits description and features
Traits | Description | Measure | Category | Source |
Body size | Body size was estimated from four measures: width and length of prosoma and, width and length of opisthosoma. | Prosoma length: Distance between anterior edge of the carapace to the posterior end in dorsal view. | Continuous (mm) |
|
Prosoma width : Mayor width of caparace in dorsal view. | Continuous (mm) | Podgaiski et al. 2013 | ||
Opisthosoma width: In the middle of the abdomen, distance from superior to inferior edge in lateral view. | Continuous (mm) | Podgaiski et al. 2013 | ||
Opisthosoma length: Distance between apex base to posterior end of abdomen in lateral view (without spinnerets). | Continuous (mm) | Podgaiski et al. 2013 | ||
Femur length | Femur length was estimated considering legs I & IV from one side. | Femur I & IV distance from anterior edge to posterior end, in prolateral view. | Continuous (mm) | Podgaiski et al. 2013 |
Ocular distance | Sum of diameters of one side of the caparace eyes. | Sum of diameter of four eyes (1 ALE, 1 PLE, 1 PME, 1 AME) from one side of the caparace. | Continuous (mm) | |
Foraging strategy | Foraging strategy has six attributes or levels: Tube web, Sheet web weaver, Space web, Orb web, Aerial hunter and Active hunter. All species present just one foraging strategy. | present=1; absent=0 | Binary |
|
Prey range | Diet could be euryophagus (wide food range also called polyphagous) or stenophagous (restricted food range). Both attributes are mutually exclusive. | present=1; absent=0 | Binary |
|
Circadian activity | Circadian activity can be diurnal and/or nocturnal. Attributes could be multiple choices (e.g. diurnal and nocturnal). | present=1; absent=0 | Multiple choices | Foelix, 2011 |
Stratum preference | Stratum preference could be ground (GR), trunk (TR) and/or vegetation (VG). Attributes are multiple choices. | present=1; absent=0 | Multiple choices |