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FAUNAL DIVERSITY OF SPIDERS (CHELICERATA: ARANEAE) IN BIHAR AND JHARKHAND, INDIA

An updated checklist of faunal biodiversity of the spiders, in two eastern states of India, Bihar and Jharkhand is presented herewith. A total of 116 species of spiders described under 67 genera belonging to 23 families were recorded in both the states of east India. The species biodiversity of spiders is more in Bihar state (93 species, 55 genera, 21 families) than in Jharkhand (35 species, 27 genera, 13 families). Only 12 species overlap in distribution in both the states. However, most of the areas in both the states (26 districts out of 38 districts in Bihar and 15 districts out of 24 districts in Jharkhand) are still virgin regarding the faunal survey programmes and need intensive and extensive survey programmes in those areas by keen workers.


INTRODUCTION
Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) constitute that group of predatory arthropods that play a key role in food webs ecosystem by regulating population density of mostly insects in all ecosystems such as forest, grassland, agriculture, horticulture etc. (Wise, 1995). In addition, they are also almost harmless creatures for humans. In spite of these, the spiders are least popular because of pervasiveness of spider phobia (Zvaríková, 2021), particularly in women (Polák et al., 2020). Globally, the order Araneae ranks seventh in (49,711 species in 4,232 genera belonging to 129 families, World Spider Catalog, 2021) after the five largest insect orders (Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera) and one arachnid order (Acari) in terms of species diversity (Sharma et al., 2020). In India, 2344 species described under 596 genera comprising 65 families are enlisted (Singh and Singh, 2021), however, Caleb and Sankaran (2021) listed only 1877 species belonging to 479 genera in 60 families. However, there exist many species in the wild and museums that still await description and classification. Most of the areas in India are still await intensive and extensive faunal survey programme. The conservation status of 99.5% of the species has not been appraised by the IUCN globally (Seppälä et al., 2018). Despite recent research works on the diversity and distribution of spiders in India, their number is insufficient as compared to the other parts of the world. The perusal of literature shows that the available information on the spiders of these states is in the scattered form and more than 60% of the areas have not yet been surveyed for faunal distribution of spiders. The present article enlists the spider fauna of these two states recorded in different districts.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present checklist is based on the published literature on the spiders recorded from Bihar and Jharkhand in recent past books, book chapters, journals, proceedings, records of Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, few authentic theses, websites, and World Species Catalog (WSC, 2021) up to October 19, 2021. In most of the literature published earlier, there were several errors in the scientific names of the spiders even in the recent publications. In the present checklist, attempts have been made to correct the errors in the scientific names of the spiders following WSC (2021). If a spider species is identified only up to a generic level, it was considered as species only if no other species of that genus is reported within that district/state. In few cases, the locations of spider species are corrected, particularly of those spiders that were described/recorded during the British period and even after the independence of India (1947) till the carving of Jharkhand from Bihar in the year 2000. Biswas and Biswas (1992) and Majumder (2005) mentioned only Bihar as locality for few spider species. For synonymy of spiders, WSC (2021) may be consulted.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A total of 116 species of spiders were reported from these two northern states out of which only 12 species were common in both the states. A total of 93 species of spiders belonging to 55 genera and 21 families were reported from Bihar while 35 species of spiders described under 27 genera belonging to 13 families were recorded from Jharkhand. Ten families of spiders (Agelenidae, Cheiracanthiidae, Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Dictynidae, Liocranidae, Oecobiidae, Philodromidae, Tetrablemmidae, Theridiidae) recorded in Bihar were not reported from Jharkhand. Similarly, 2 families of spiders (Idiopidae, Selenopidae) recorded from Jharkhand were not reported from Bihar. However, more than 60% of the areas in both the states are still virgin regarding the faunal survey programmes and need an intensive and extensive survey in those areas by keen workers. Following is the family-wise list of spiders recorded in both the states.

A. BIHAR
Bihar is one of the eastern states of India with an 2 area of 94,163 km and an average elevation above sea level of 53 m. Bihar is located in between latitudes 24°20'10''N and 27°31'15''N and longitudes 83°19'50''E and 88°17'40''E. It is an entirely land-locked state, bordered with Nepal to the north, with West Bengal to the east, with Jharkhand to the south and Uttar Pradesh to its west. The Bihar has three geographical regions based on physical and structural conditions: the Southern Plateau, the Shivalik Region, and the Gangetic Plain which is itself divided into North and South Bihar by the river Ganges which flows west-east and along with its tributaries, regularly floods parts of the Bihar plain in rainy season. 2 The reserve forest area of Bihar is 6,845 km . Bihar lies in the Subtropical region of the Temperate Zone with humid subtropical climate and has a yearly average of 26°C. In northern part, particularly in the Champaran district, there are moist deciduous forests, mixed with shrubs, grass and reeds. The Bihar has one National Park, Tiger reserve and few wildlife sanctuaries. About 60% of the total geographical area of Bihar is cultivated area. The principal agricultural crops are rice, paddy, potato, wheat, sugarcane, jute, vegetables, maize, oil seeds etc. The state is administratively divided into 38 districts (Fig. 1).

Family Agelenidae
Taxonomic study of spider in Jharkhand seems to begin with Pocock (1900)  The perusal of literature reveals that maximum number of species of spiders is reported from West Singhbhum district (12 species) followed by