Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57

Arachnologische Mitteilungen / Arachnology Letters 57: 69-76 Karlsruhe, April 2019 The Canary Islands are an archipelago of volcanic origin lo- cated off northwest Africa, comprising seven major islands. The second-highest island, La Palma, is 1.77 million years old and comprises two large volcanoes; the extinct northern shield volcano and the southern volcanic ridge, the most acti- ve volcanic region in the Canaries (Troll & Carracedo 2016). Due to its height, in this island five main vegetation belts are present; spurge scrub (0–200 m of altitude), thermo-sclero- phyllous woodland (200–500 m), laurel forest (500–1200 m), pine forest (1200–1900) and summit broom scrub (above 1900 m) (Garzón-Machado et al. 2013). Among them, laurel forest may be one of the most interesting ecosystems because, as for most taxa, in this ecosystem spider richness reaches its maximum (Suárez 2018). In La Palma, there are well preser- ved laurel forest areas in the northeast as well as some relicts at mid-altitudes in the southeast. Among the more than 500 spider species that have been reported for the Canary Islands, 127 can be found at La Palma (Suárez 2018, Bellvert 2018). However, distribution patterns within the island remain unknown as there are many localities with just few species recorded and even gaps without any sin- gle record (empty quadrats in Fig 1a).This poorly understood distribution, usually called ‘Wallacean shortfall’, is important as the lack of knowledge is a problem in conservation biology when making practical decisions (Bini et al. 2006), especially in protected areas. For this reason, in this article a spider sur- vey in the protected area of Montaña de la Breña (Fig 1b) has been conducted in order to increase the known distribution of the spider species of the island. In this protected area, four species have been previously reported; Nigma tuberosa Wun- derlich, 1987 (Dictynidae), Oecobius palmensis Wunderlich, 1987 (Oecobiidae), Pholcus ornatus Bösenberg, 1895 (Phol- cidae) and Lasaeola striata (Wunderlich, 1987) (Theridiidae) (Gobierno de Canarias 2018). Material and methods The study site, Montaña de la Breña (Protected Area Code: ES7020072), is a Special Area of Conservation of the Natura 2000 Network with a surface of 26.15 ha located in the south­ east of the island at an altitude of 565 m. This old tephritic volcanic cone is covered mainly by a dry laurel forest while on the southern slope there is a canary pine ( Pinus canariensis ) plantation as well as a nitrophilous shrubby community of Artemisia thuscula and Rumex lunaria (García et al. 2018).The study area was divided into four sectors, matching with the 500 m × 500 m quadrats used in the Canary Biodiversity Da- taBase (Gobierno de Canarias 2018). The coordinates of the centres of the four sectors are 28.6342ºN/17.7826ºW (Sector 1),28.6340ºN/17.7806ºW(Sector 2),28.6326ºN/17.7813ºW (Sector 3) and 28.6325ºN/17.7825ºW (Sector 4). Sampling was conducted between November 2014 and January 2015 (three days; 14 hours of sampling effort) and between November 2018 and January 2019 (two days; 4 hours of sampling effort), applying several collecting me- thods, following the COBRA protocol (Cardoso et al. 2009), such as active aerial searching (AAS), litter sifting (LIT), be- ating (BET), sweeping (SWE), ground and wood searching (GWS) and pitfall trapping (PIT). Active collecting methods (AAS, BET, SWE and GWS) were conducted during an hour per plot and per date. A grid of 48 non-baited pitfall traps were laid, filled with propylene glycol and retired after two weeks. Regarding sifting, a total number of 6 samples of 2 m 2 of leaves litter were obtained with a Winkler sieve.Then, spiders were extracted from those samples with the Berlese funnel method. The habitats were not documented. All spe- cimens are preserved in 70 % ethanol and deposited in the collection of the first author. Global distribution data were taken from the World Spider Catalog (2018). Results A total number of 430 individuals (undeterminable juveniles excluded) were collected, belonging to 54 species of 24 diffe- rent families. Regarding richness per quadrat, both Sectors 1 and 4 harboured up to 23 species, while in Sectors 2 and 3, 36 and 34 species were found, respectively (Tab. 1). Agelenidae Lycosoides coarctata (Dufour, 1831) Determination . Nentwig et al. (2018). Material examined . Sector 2, SWE, 15. Nov. 2014, 2 j.; Sector 2, PIT, 1.–15. Nov. 2014, 1 ( ; Sector 3, GWS, 6. Jan. 2015, 1 ( . Distribution . Mediterranean. A spider survey in a protected area of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) reveals five new records for the island Javier García & Daniel Suárez doi: 10.30963/aramit5713 Abstract. During a survey of spiders in the protected area of Montaña de La Breña (La Palma, Canary Islands), a total of 54 species from 24 families were recorded. Porrhoclubiona minor , Leptodrassus albidus , Macarophaeus varius , Silhouettella loricatula and Ballus chalybeius are reported for the first time for La Palma. Keywords: COBRA protocol, distribution, faunistics, laurel forest, Macaronesia Zusammenfassung. Spinnenerfassungen in einem Schutzgebiet auf La Palma (Kanarische Inseln, Spanien) mit fünf Neunach- weisen für die Insel. Bei einer Untersuchung des Schutzgebietes Montaña de La Breña (La Palma, Kanarische Inseln) wurden 54 Arten aus 24 Familien erfasst. Porrhoclubiona minor , Leptodrassus albidus , Macarophaeus varius , Silhouettella loricatula und Ballus chalybeius werden erstmals für La Palma nachgewiesen. Javier GARCÍA, Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de La Laguna. 38206 La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain); E-mail: jgarper91@gmail.com Daniel SUÁREZ, Departamento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de La Laguna. 38206 La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain); E-mail: danielsura94@gmail.com submitted 3.2.2019, accepted 24.2.2019, online 25.3.2019