Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57

Checklist of the spiders of Left-Bank Ukraine 63 Fig. 5: Dynamics of the number of pub- lications concerning spiders of Left-Bank Ukraine during the surveyed period (1836–2018) Since the early 1990s, the spider studies have been deve­ loping in various directions. Investigations of the spider fauna and habitat distribution remain the focus of most research (204 faunistic papers, including 98 papers concerning protec­ ted areas). There were 30 conservation areas studied in Left- Bank Ukraine. The most species-rich are the local faunas of the National Parks ‘Sviati Hory’ (Donetsk Region, 288 spe­ cies) and ‘Homilshanski Lisy’ (Kharkiv Region, 258 species), the Nature Reserves ‘Kamiani Mohyly’ (Donetsk Region, 258 species) and ‘Prydintsivska Zaplava’ (Luhansk Region, 252 species), and the Ivano-Rybalchanskyi and Solenoozernyi segments of the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve (Kherson Re­ gion, 255 species). The nature conservation studies required investigations of the impact of land management, such as hay mowing (Polchaninova 2004), cattle grazing (Polchaninova et al . 2016a) or burning (Prokopenko & Savchenko 2013, Polchaninova 2015, Polchaninova et al. 2016b), on spider communities. Six spider species were included in the Red Data Book of Kharkiv Region (Tokarsky 2013); twelve spe­ cies were listed in the Red Data Book of the Donetsk Region (Zalevskiy & Bronskov 2017). Spiders of transformed lands have been studied mainly in urban ecosystems (33 papers), reclaimed coalmine was­ te banks, oil drilling sites and/or ash damps of waterpower plants (16 papers).The araneofauna of Donetsk City is inves­ tigated best (257 species) (Prokopenko 2013). For the city of Kharkiv, the largest city in the study area, only 160 spider spe­ cies are known (Polchaninova & Prokopenko 2013). Despite the fact that agricultural lands occupy vast areas in Left-Bank Ukraine, they are almost neglected in terms of spider studies (nine papers only). Fourteen papers deal with a role of spiders in food webs as predators and prey in natural and man-made ecosystems; nine papers discuss biological aspects of indivi­ dual spider species. Systematics studies in Left-Bank Ukraine (69 papers) include descriptions of new species and/or genera revisions, which use spider specimens collected in the study area as comparative material (see Kovblyuk 2005, Kovblyuk & Na­ dolny 2007, Kovblyuk et al. 2012). Twenty-six species from the present-day territory of Ukraine were described as new to science and 17 of them are valid. Only the family Dysde­ ridae (Kovblyuk et al. 2008) and the genus Sintula (Gnelitsa 2012) have been surveyed in the whole of Ukraine. However, both taxa are poor in the left-bank area (six and two species, respectively). Discussion Despite the long history of research, the spider fauna of Left- Bank Ukraine is still far from being well studied.The number of registered species (741) is lower than in other countries in eastern or eastern-central Europe, regardless of their area (Nentwig et al. 2018): e.g., Bulgaria ( 110994 km 2 ) – 1038 species, Romania ( 238397 km 2 ) – 1007, Slovakia ( 49035 km 2 ) – 980, Czech Republic ( 78865 km 2 ) – 888, Poland ( 312679 km 2 ) – 847 and Hungary ( 93030 km 2 ) – 804. The area of Left-Bank Ukraine is approximately 242 088 km 2 . However, the relatively poor faunistic list can be explained not only by the insufficient data but also by the plain landscape of the study area. The adjacent region of Central European Russia also hosts only 698 species (Mikhailov 2013, Nentwig et al. 2018). The lack of geographically detached regions results in the lack of endemic spiders. Though the Donetsk Ridge, lo­ cated mainly within Left-Bank Ukraine, is an endemic area for a number of plant species (Didukh 2009), spiders with the similar geographic ranges are not known. The araneofauna of the forb-bunchgrass steppe subzone is the richest in Left-Bank Ukraine.This was to be expected gi­ ven its large area, variety of climatic conditions, and the high­ est habitat diversity – from floodplain forests in the north to dry steppes and seashore in the south. Moreover, it hosts the largest number of protected areas and has been best studied. The administrative regions of Left-Bank Ukraine remain un­ equally inventoried. Only the fauna of the Donetsk Region (514 species) can be considered sufficiently studied. We can compare it with the araneofauna of the adjacent Rostov-on- Don Region of Russia, which accounts for about 600 spider number of publications 35 30 25 20 15 10 1 5 1 0 years 1919 1971 1989 1993 1997 1981 1940 1897 1881 1866 1932 2001 1976 1985 2005 2009 2017 2013 1836