Spiders (Araneae) of the northeast of the Luhansk Oblast (Ukraine)

Study Extent

Spiders were collected by hand, by pitfall trapping, and by sweep netting in the habitats, typical of the north of the steppe zone of the East European Plain: forb-fescue-feather grass steppe on the flat interfluves and the gully slopes, meadow-like vegetation at the gully bottoms, thickets of the steppe shrubs, chalk hills with calcareous vegetation, clayey gully slopes with xerophytic steppe vegetation, mesic floodplain meadows, abandoned fields, river banks, forest shelterbelts, forest plantations, bairak forests and their edges (semi-natural forests covering gully bottoms and slopes in the south of the Forest-Steppe and in the north of the Steppe zone). The author cooperated with Larysa Borovyk, Director of the Luhansk Natural Reserve, who organized the field trips, helped to collect the material, and gave advice on regional vegetation communities, conservation management and study history of the Reserve. This dataset was prepared and published with the help of the Olin gGmbH foundation to preserve data on the biodiversity of Ukraine obtained by the Ukrainian scientists, who were forced to leave their homeland due to the war (Russia's invasion of Ukraine). Olin gGmbH is a funding organization for environmental protection and conservation that supports environmental and sociopolitical organizations. Also the creation of the dataset was partially supported by Rufford Foundation project "Open biodiversity data: serving Nature Conservation in Ukriane".

Sampling

The main material was obtained from the monitoring sites in the Striltsivskyi Steppe before (1982-1989) and after the fire (2009-2011) taking into account the topography and conservation management (strictly protected steppe, periodically and annually mowed steppe, pasture). An unburnt adjacent gully was regarded as a conditional control. Ten pitfall traps were set in a line in each studied habitat. I used 250 ml plastic caps and arranged them at a distance of 10 m from each other. Sweep netting and hand collecting were carried out once a month on days of setting and checking traps. Hand collecting during the study period contributed to the fauna inventory of the area in question. Geographical locations were indicated by GPS-navigator in decimal degrees according to the WGS 84 system. The nomenclature follows the World Spider Catalogue (WSC, 2022).

Quality Control

The author is fully responsible for the quality of data provided within the dataset.

Method steps

1. Field expeditions to the study sites.
2. Establishing a line of ten traps at a distance of 10 m at each study plot.
3. Regular checking of the traps.
4. Sweep netting conducted in the same habitats, tree samples of 25 double sweeps per plot; hand collecting.
5. Georeferencing with the help of GPS-navigator.
6. Species identification in the laboratory.
7. Organizing of a dataset according to Darwin Core standards.

The dataset consists of finds of spiders (class - Arachnida, order - Araneae).

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Arthropoda
   rank: phylum
3. Arachnida
   rank: class
4. Araneae
   rank: order
5. Agelenidae
   rank: family
6. Araneidae
   rank: family
7. Atypidae
   rank: family
8. Cheiracanthiidae
   rank: family
9. Clubionidae
   rank: family
10. Dictynidae
    rank: family
11. Eresidae
    rank: family
12. Gnaphosidae
    rank: family
13. Linyphiidae
    rank: family
14. Liocranidae
    rank: family
15. Hahniidae
    rank: family
16. Lycosidae
    rank: family
17. Oxyopidae
    rank: family
18. Miturgidae
    rank: family
19. Mimetidae
    rank: family
20. Philodromidae
    rank: family
21. Phrurolithidae
    rank: family
22. Pisauridae
    rank: family
23. Pholcidae
    rank: family
24. Salticidae
    rank: family
25. Sparassidae
    rank: family
26. Thomisidae
    rank: family
27. Tetragnathidae
    rank: family
28. Theridiidae
    rank: family
29. Titanoecidae
    rank: family
30. Uloboridae
    rank: family
31. Anyphaenidae
    rank: family

The study sites are located near the villages of Novobila, Taniushivka, Zorykivka, Striltsivka, Velykotsk, Krynychne, and Horodyshche of the Bilovodsk, Novopskov and Milove Raions of the Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine.