Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57

62 N. Polchaninova & E. Prokopenko species). A total of 194 species (26.1% of the fauna) is widely distributed across the four compared zones/subzones (Tab. 1), while 163 species (22.1%) were registered in only one of them: 29 species (7% of the zonal fauna) in the forest zone, 41 species (7.9%) in the forest-steppe, 69 species (12 %) in the steppe I, and 24 species (6.4%) in the steppe II. Concerning administra­ tive divisions, the largest number of spider species has been re­ gistered in Donetsk Region (Fig. 4).The number of species in the other six regions completely (or almost completely) located within Left-Bank Ukraine ranges from 122 to 426. There are no endemics in the study area. Nevertheless, the boundaries of geographic ranges of a number of species run through its territory. They are mostly northern (47 species) and western (25 species) boundaries. Besides, twelve species have eastern margins of their areas, two species north-eastern, four species north-western, two species south-western, and three species southern margins (Table 1). Noteworthy are rare species with patchy distribution in Europe, like Altella hun­ garica, Cheiracanthium gratum, Gnaphosa rufula , Haplodrassus bohemicus, Talanites strandi, Caviphantes dobrogicus, Metapa­ namomops kaestneri, Minicia candida, Pardosa maisa, Sibianor larae , and Pachygnatha clercoides. Some species with narrow ranges are known to date only from the south ( Harpactea azo­ wensis, Liocranoeca spasskyi ) and/or southeast ( Alopecosa step­ pica, Trachyzelotes cumensis, Theridion innocuum ) of the East European Plain.The others extend their ranges to the Crimea ( Lathys lehtineni, Micaria bosmansi , Centromerus abditus, Me­ cynargus minutipalpis, Talavera logunovi ) or to the Caucasus ( Dysdera ukrainensis ) . Species with more or less wide Ancient Mediterranean or Mediterranean areas offer examples of the northern geographic boundaries in the study area, while the ranges of a bulk of Central Asian species ( Araneus pallasi, De­ vade tenella, Gnaphosa cumensis, Agyneta birulaioides, Thanatus mongolicus, Attulus inopinabilis, Pellenes allegrii ) are limited in the west by the lower Dnieper flow. Over the entire period of arachnological research in Left- Bank Ukraine (since 1836 to the present day), 369 papers based on original material and/or museum collections have been published.The faunistic data were summarized in regio­ nal species lists, key books and/or catalogues; the most signifi­ cant of them were compiled by Kharitonov (1932),Mikhailov (1997, 2013) and Polchaninova & Prokopenko (2013, 2017). The first period of the records’ accumulation lasted over 130 years, with no more than one or two papers published a year (Fig. 5). Th ere were only 185 species known from the study area until early 1970s, when interest in spiders increased and resulted in publications of some local species lists. By 1990, the total list of spiders had accounted for about 350 species. Fig. 3: Species richness of spider families in the faunas of natural zones and subzones of Left-Bank Ukraine. For abbreviations, see Fig. 2 Fig. 4: Administrative division of Left-Bank Ukraine and the number of spi- der species registered in each region. Chn – Chernihiv, Chr – Cherkassy, Dnp – Dnipropetrovsk, Don – Donetsk, Khk – Kharkiv, Khr – Kherson, Kv – Kyiv, Lhn – Luhansk, Myk – Mykolaiv, Plt – Poltava, Sm – Sumy, Zpr – Za- porizhzhia Forest (407 spp.) Left-Bank Ukraine (741 spp.) Forest-steppe (515 spp.) Steppe I (582 spp.) Steppe II (375 spp.) 16% 4% 5% 7% 8% 8% 2% 10% 7% 33% Others Araneidae Philodromidae Lycosidae Gnaphosidae Linyphidae Salticidae Therididae Thomisidae Dictynidae 4% 5% 6% 8% 8% 11% 11% 29% 15% 3% 16% 16% 17% 3% 3% 6% 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 3% 8% 8% 8% 7% 7% 7% 11% 9% 10% 10% 13% 13% 13% 31% 9% 18% 24% 2%