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Abstract
The effect of forest fragmentation on the abundance of the whip spiders Heterophrynus longicornis (Butler 1973) in land-bridge island fragments created by the lake formed by Tucuruí Dam, Pará, Brazil, was investigated. These fragments have been isolated for at least 23 years, on small islands that range in size from 12.9 to 91.3 ha. The abundance of whip spiders was calculated in 100 m transects on eight islands, both in the edge and in the interior of the islands. There were no differences in whip spider abundance between the edge or interior of islands, but the whip spiders strongly preferred areas with greater numbers of trees, trees with a DBH between 10 to 50 cm, and trees with termite nests. Over 31% of the whip spiders were found in association with other individuals on the same tree. Individuals were found in mother–offspring associations, mating pairs, and in mixed-age sex groups.
Acknowledgements
This study was carried out during the field course “Ecologia e Conservação de Populações em Áreas Fragmentadas” supported by Universidade Federal do Pará, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and Eletronorte. The authors thank L.V. Ferreira and U. Galatti for suggestions during the fieldwork; S.C. Dias, D.F. Candiani, S. Pékar and three anonymous referees for comments on early draft of the manuscript; C.A. Rheims for review of the English language; and L.S. Rayor for constructive comments that greatly improved the last version of this manuscript. LSC and JOG received a M.Sc. scholarship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (#131307/2006-1 and #134951/2006-9, respectively), and NFLMH received CNPq grant (#130775/2011-8).