Abstract
Cave-dwelling spiders stand out as model organisms in subterranean ecosystems, with their ecological role, unique adaptations, and sensitivity to anthropogenic actions. Hence, we aimed to understand the occupancy and habitat selection of cave-dwelling spiders by selecting seven accessible limestone caves at Baratang Island, Andaman and Nicobar Is, for three repetitive temporal surveys. While conducting this preliminary order-level study, we encountered 636 individuals in 552 longitudinal fixed-width transects (of 1 m width) covering a 1,232 sq. m area. We encountered most spiders on the walls (76.59%) and ceiling (5.37%). Spiders had an average abundance of 5–6 individuals/transect and a density of one individual/sq. m. Unlike density, spider abundance varied across the zones. Cave spiders occupied 64.33% of the sampled area with 80% detection probability, 41% colonization, and 17% extinction rates. Though spiders had a random zonal distribution, most encounters were in the dark zone (48.1%) and the highest occupancy (84%) was in the entrance zone. Neither cave structure nor the microclimate inside caves significantly affected the population and distribution of spiders. Recognizing the caveat of studying spider occupancy at the order level, we understand that well-designed species-level ecology and biology studies in tropical caves might further unveil the unknown.References
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