Arachnologische Mitteilungen 54

Arachnologische Mitteilungen / Arachnology Letters 54: 48-51 Karlsruhe, September 2017 Protection of heathlands in Europe has recently become an important topic.This issue has also been discussed in the con- text of spider populations (Krause et al. 2011), communities (Bell et al. 2001), or ecology of different arthropod groups, also taking different heathland types into account (Fartmann et al. 2015). Large-area heathlands in western Poland are situ- ated mostly in former, and still actively used, military training areas and are anthropogenic. Nevertheless, these habitats are considered valuable and the need to prevent natural succes- sion has been discussed. In 2015 a plot of heather in Lower Silesia (W Poland) was rejuvenated using prescribed burning and a subsequent inventory of the flora and fauna in the plot, and in some adjacent habitats, was carried out. In the course of this research we observed two spider species that had not been recorded from the territory of Poland before: Uloborus walckenaerius Latreille, 1806 from the family Uloboridae and Oxyopes heterophthalmus (Latreille, 1804) from Oxyopidae. The aim of this article is to document these records and to discuss them in the context of heathland protection issues. Only two members of the family Uloboridae have been reported from Poland to date: Hyptiotes paradoxus (C. L. Koch, 1834) and Uloborus plumipes Lucas, 1846 (Nentwig et al. 2017). The previous species was sporadically recorded in different parts of the country (Kupryjanowicz 2008), the latter is a typical synanthropic spider in the Central Europe and it is regularly observed in greenhouses and plant mar- kets (Stankiewicz & Kupryjanowicz 2002, Rozwałka 2007, Rozwałka et. al 2013). The newly found spider – Uloborus walckenaerius – is a Palaearctic species (World Spider Catalog 2017). It has been recorded from neighbouring countries – i.e. the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Ukraine (Nent- wig et al. 2017).The only oxyopid species known in Poland to date was Oxyopes ramosus (Martini & Goeze, 1778). It is not a rare spider and – besides being spotted in diverse habitats – it is known to be very common in heathlands (Nentwig et al. 2017). Oxyopes heterophthalmus is a decidedly rare species near its northern range border. Its known localities – for example in Germany (Arachnologische Gesellschaft 2017) or in sou- thern England (British Arachnological Society 2017) – are extremely scarce or scattered. Site and sampling methods The heathland is situated in the middle part of a former military training area, which was used until the early 1990s (N51°28’04’’, E15°42’09’’, 150 m a.s.l.; western Poland, nort- hern part of Lower Silesia Voivodeship; Fig. 1). These ha- bitats are protected within the Przemków Landscape Park and are also the part of the Natura 2000 network (‘Wrzoso- wisko Przemkowskie’; PLH020015). Many large-area heath patches, which have not undergone succession by Scots pine or birch yet, can still be found there. Prescribed burning was applied to rejuvenate one, ca. 4.5 ha large, old heather plot on 18 March 2015. We carried out a subsequent fauna survey of Uloborus walckenaerius and Oxyopes heterophthalmus in Poland (Araneae: Uloboridae, Oxyopidae) KonradWiśniewski & Angelika Dawidowicz doi: 10.5431/aramit5411 Abstract. We report the presence of Uloborus walckenaerius Latreille, 1806 and Oxyopes heterophthalmus (Latreille, 1804) in Poland. Two females and a juvenile of U . walckenaerius and a male of O . heterophthalmus were recorded in a heathland in the western part of the country, in Lower Silesia. Both species are known from similar habitats in neighbouring regions in eastern Germany (Brandenburg and Saxony). Heathlands in Poland may have great importance in maintaining populations of these two species, and some other rare inver- tebrates. The habitat requires management activities. Keywords: Central Europe, faunistics, former military area, heath, prescribed fire Zusammenfassung. Uloborus walckenaerius und Oxyopes heterophthalmus in Polen (Araneae: Uloboridae, Oxyopidae). Wir wei- sen Uloborus walckenaerius Latreille, 1806 und Oxyopes heterophthalmus (Latreille, 1804) erstmals für Polen nach. Zwei Weibchen und ein Jungtier von U . walckenaerius sowie ein Männchen von O . heterophthalmus wurden in Heidegebieten Westpolens/Niederschlesiens gefunden. Beide Arten sind bereits aus ähnlichen Lebensräumen im benachbarten Osten Deutschlands (Brandenburg und Sachsen) bekannt. Die Calluna -Heiden Polens spielen für den Schutz beider Arten, wie auch für andere selteneWirbellose, eine wichtige Rolle. Für den Erhalt des Lebensraumes sind Managementmaßnahmen notwendig. KonradWIŚNIEWSKI, Angelika DAWIDOWICZ, University of Wrocław, Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Taxonomy, Przybyszewskiego 65, 51-148 Wrocław; E-mail: konwisniew@gmail.com, angel_qxq@o2.pl submitted 7.2.2017, accepted 2.8.2017, online 16.8.2017 Fig. 1: Sites, where Uloborus walckenaerius (red frames) and Oxyopes hete- rophthalmus (yellow frames) were recorded in Brandenburg and Saxony (after the Arachnologische Gesellschaft 2017) and their new locality in Po- land (UTM square: WT40). Main rivers and cities, country and voivodeship/ Land borders are depicted. The area of the Landscape Park of Przemków is also shown (small dots).