Cryptachaea blattea (Urquhart, 1886) has been recorded for the first time from Germany (Nordstemmen, rural district of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony). One male was found by means of pitfall traps in a tree and shrub nursery. The species was most likely introduced with plants or cargo. Information about its appearance, habitat, and distribution are given.

Pitfall traps were positioned for the investigation of the spider fauna at the northern and southern slopes of three mountain ridges (Chilchberg, Riedberg, and Buechenberg, municipalities Nunningen and Zullwil, canton Solothurn, Switzerland) within the Swiss Jura Mountains. The temperature in the upper litter was measured at three hour intervals. Independent of the weather more or less clear differences between northern and southern slopes could be observed. Maximum day temperature fluctuations of 15.8 °C were measured.

There were no significant differences in spider communities based on quantitative comparison methods. However, a qualitative analysis showed major differences in species composition. More than 50% of all species per investigation area showed clear preferences for the northern or the southern slope, with more then two thirds of the individuals only found on either the north or south slopes.

The previously unknown male of Steatoda ephippiata (Thorell, 1875) is described from recently collected material in Tunisia. Some new distribution records for the species are added and all known records are mapped.

The canopy spiders of the floodplain forest in Leipzig have become a focus of ecological studies in recent years. In 2006 we sampled 30 tree canopies in the ‘Burgaue’ nature reserve with pyrethrum knock-down fogging, recording 502 adult spiders belonging to 48 species and 11 families. Based on these data and the results of a previous fogging study, the studied spider community was dominated by forest and forest-edge species with a preference for the shrub and canopy strata as well as by spiders of the web spider feeding guild. The community structure was typical for arboreal spider communities from northern temperate forests but very different from communities in the tropics. Species richness and evenness were similar to the old growth near-primary Białowieża Forest in Poland. The checklist of 96 canopy spider species of the floodplain forest of Leipzig includes 54 additions to the spider fauna of Leipzig and vicinity by recent canopy studies and eight first canopy records for Leipzig from our field work. The theridiid Dipoena torva (Thorell, 1875) was recorded for the first time in Saxony. The floodplain forest of Leipzig sustains a large and species-rich arboreal spider community and is thus a valuable habitat for a large proportion of endangered species (12%).

Records of Nesticodes rufipes (Lucas, 1846) from Saxony, Germany are presented. The three females of Nesticodes rufipes were found associated with the zoo trade in the cities of Chemnitz and Plauen in cricket boxes. Female genitalia are illustrated.

book review: Christian Kropf & Peter Horak (Hrsg.) (2009): Towards a natural history of arthropods and other organisms. In memoriam Konrad Thaler

book review: P.A. Sebastian & K.V. Peter (Hrsg.) (2009): Spiders of India

congress report

congress report