Jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) as indicators of the conservation status of habitats in Eastern Chaco, Argentina

Abstract

The spiders of the Salticidae family can be valuable indicators of various environmental conditions because they are distributed over almost all continents and are found in a wide variety of habitats and in all climatic seasons. It was assessed if species of Salticidae function as indicators of the conservation status of habitats and if the use of adult+juvenile or adult-only data yields different results. Spiders were collected in two natural parks and two semi-natural areas located between both parks in an area of Eastern Chaco, Argentina. The samples were taken from three types of habitats: foliage, leaf litter and grassland. The analysis of indicator species was conducted with the indicator value index (IndVal). A high IndVal value for a species in a habitat (e.g., semi-natural grassland) indicates that it is specific (relatively abundant) and faithful (evenly distributed) to that habitat. The species that presented IndVal values >0.45 and >0.70 were classified as detectors and indicators, respectively. Indicator species are highly characteristic of a group (exclusive or nearly exclusive), while detector species prefer a group, but are not exclusive to it. Philira micans was found to be a detector for the semi-natural foliage; Semiopyla viperina, for the natural leaf litter and Maeota dorsalis, for the natural grassland. The use of the adult+juvenile dataset provided more information about the number of IndVal-significant species; the three detector species mentioned were detected exclusively from this dataset. This study demonstrates that Salticidae spiders in the studied area are sensitive to the conservation status of the analyzed habitats as detector species were recorded. Besides, this study demonstrates that the adult+juvenile dataset improves the detection of species sensitive to changes.