Spider communities in two plant architectures of epiphytic cacti in the brazilian Atlantic forest

Abstract

The vegetative architecture of the Cactaceae provides sites used by spiders as hideout, foraging, mating and oviposition. We found more web weavers in plants with cylindrical cladodia and more hunters in plants with flat cladodia. Between February 2014 and January 2015 1551 spiders distributed in 20 families were collected: one of these families, Palpimanidae, had only juvenile individuals collected; of the other 19 families, 80 species/morphospecies were identified. This work aims to contribute to the knowledge of biodiversity in the canopy of the Atlantic Forest, especially the relationship between cacti and spiders.