Comparison of Ground Surface Spiders in Four Central Florida Ecosystems

Ground surface spider populations were studied using can traps for 3-1/2 years on sand-pine dunes, pine flat-woods, citrus groves, and residential areas in central Florida. Twenty-three prevalent (0.5 or more percent of total population) species involving, primarily, 6 prevalent (5.0 or more percent of total population) families occurred in distinctive, specifically different, ground surface spider populations in each ecosystem. The sand-pine dune population was 53% lycosid, 19% gnaphosid, and 18% salticid; the pine flat-woods, 64% lycosid, 21% salticid, and 5% linyphiid; the residential area, 54% lycosid, 23% theridiid, and 16% linyphiid; and the citrus grove, 38% clubionid, 19% theridiid, 18% lycosid, and 11% linyphiid. The population in the citrus grove was also only 1/3 as large as those of the other ecosystems. Most of the differences among the populations of the sand-pine dunes, pine flat-woods, and residential areas seemed to be the result of ecologically-equivalent species replacement, but the strikingly different citrus grove population could be the result of repeated soil surface disturbance during cover crop cultivation.