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Spider (Araneae) abundance and species richness comparison between native wildflower plantings and fallow controls in intensively managed agricultural areas

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Abstract

Large-scale agriculture has led to a loss of overall biodiversity and ecosystem services (e.g., biological control) within farmland. Native wildflower plantings have been used to restore ecosystem services and increase conservation measures within agricultural areas. In this study, we examined spider (Araneae) communities within small wildflower plots and fallow control plots that were primarily composed of grasses. Utilizing multiple trapping schemes (pitfalls, sweep netting, and pan trapping), spiders were found to be more abundant within the wildflower plots compared to fallow controls but species richness or Shannon–Wiener diversity indices were not different between the two habitats. The sheet web-weaving spider, Ceraticelus tibialis, (Araneae: Linyphiidae) was more abundant within the fallow controls, whereas, some spider families (Lycosidae, and Oxyopidae) were significantly more abundant in the wildflower plots. Categorizing spiders into hunting/web-building guilds showed that ambushers, space, and stalkers were significantly more abundant in the wildflower plots but low-sheet/tangle weavers were significantly more abundant in the fallow controls. Our results suggest that wildflower plantings can be a successful way to increase overall spider abundance within intensive agricultural areas and, thus, may help contribute to biological control of pest insects. However, our results also suggest wildflower plantings may not be a useful conservation tool that increases spider biodiversity within agricultural areas.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding provided by the United States Department of Agriculture -National Institute for Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative (http://nifa.usda.gov), from project 2012-01534: Developing Sustainable Pollination Strategies for U.S Specialty Crops and Syngenta as part of the Operation Pollinator initiative. We thank Hennelly Irvin, Mary Bammer, Kane Barr, Steven Pelkey, Siria Gamez, Allyn Irvin, Cory Stanly-Stahr, and Cherice Smithers for spider collection and data entry. Additionally, we thank Alexandra Tsalickis for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University, 301 Funchess Hall, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Joshua W. Campbell

  2. Department of Biology, Shaheen College of Arts and Sciences, University of Indianapolis, 1400 East Hanna Ave., Indianapolis, IN, 46227, USA

    Marc Milne & Bao Thu Dinh

  3. Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Steinmetz Hall, Natural Area Dr., Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Jaret C. Daniels & James D. Ellis

  4. McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, 3215 Hull Road, PO Box 112710, Gainesville, FL, 32611-2710, USA

    Jaret C. Daniels

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  1. Joshua W. Campbell
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  4. Jaret C. Daniels
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Correspondence to Joshua W. Campbell.

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Campbell, J.W., Milne, M., Dinh, B.T. et al. Spider (Araneae) abundance and species richness comparison between native wildflower plantings and fallow controls in intensively managed agricultural areas. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 14, 263–274 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-019-09725-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-019-09725-9

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