A new method for autoecological characterization of spider species is presented. It is based on the indicator value system of ELLENBERG and provides preliminary information, especially for rarely found species by comparing several different habitats. The use of this method is exemplified for the soil-spider Comaroma simoni BERTKAU, 1889 and the autecology of this species is discussed.

The spider fauna found in vineyards treated either by mulching soil tilling was investigated and compared. Mulching treatment results in a spider community that is richer in species and in numbers. Many species found are typical for dry habitats and represent characteristic species of the Kaiserstuhl area.

book review: Rainer F. Foelix: Biologie der Spinnen

book review: Arachnologie einmal anders. Harald Brehm: Große Spinne - kleine Spinne. Ein Lesebuch über "das schreckliche Tier". Evamaria Kühn: Die Spinne Seraphina. Babette Cole: Tarzanna.

The checklist contains informations about the spiders recorded from Baden-Württemberg since 1898.

From May to October 1991, spiders on pine trunks in a moorish pine forest in the Federsee nature reserve in Upper Swabia were caught with arboreal photoeblectors. To register vertical differences of intensity of activity, the eclectors were attached at different heights above the ground, one eclector on each trunk. Abiotic parameters (temperature, evaporation), the structure of the bark and its epiphytes were recorded. 108 species from 19 families were found. Most frequent were the families Linyphiidae, Theriidae and Anyphaenidae. The most abundant species was Entelecara penicillata. Intensity of activity, ecotype, dominance structure, dominance identity, diversity and eveness were used as parameters to investigate vertical changes in fauna structure. The investigations showed that the lowest trunk-region is frequently used by spiders normally living the field layer or the litter. These species, however, hardly ever climb up to higher regions. On the other hand, the eclector faunas of the middle and especially of the highest parts of the trunks near the canopies are heavily influenced by the canopy fauna. Several epitruncal species also show preferences for these different trunk-regions. Ecological and abiotic parameters show that the upper trunk-region is a much more extreme habitat than the lower one and the fauna structures are in accordance with this.