Checklist of spider species in a urban forest fragment in the Brazilian Amazon with 16 new local records and 3 new records from Brazil

Abstract

The order Araneae comprises more than 52,000 described species of spiders and despite their high diversity, there is still a lot to study about their taxonomy and biogeography, especially in tropical regions. In this paper, we provide a checklist of spiders from the Research Campus of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará, Brazil, with new records in different scales. The sampling occurred sporadically between 2011–2018, using different sampling methods. A total of 492 individuals of 172 morphospecies were recorded, distributed in 103 genera and 25 families. It was possible determining 84 species (48.8%), with 16 new records for Belém, including seven for Pará and three for Brazil. The relatively high species can be explained for many factors, such as sampling at different times of the year, use of various collection methods and the fact that the study area is connected to an extensive forest matrix to the northeast, possibly allowing the dispersal of individuals between areas. Finally, the new records, the high species richness and the amount of undetermined species highlights the challenges of having an acceptable level of faunistic knowledge of Amazonia spiders.