author(s)
J Upadhyay, SB Das and S Chakrabarti

abstract
The present study was based on the surveys conducted on crops cultivated post rainy season in the Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University farms, Jabalpur during two consecutive years, 2016 - 2018. Spiders of 28 species representing 17 genera under 14 families were identified. Among all these spider family the predominant diversity was represented by 3 families-Araneidae, Thomisidae and Salticidae. The most common families recorded among the crops were Araneidae (24%), Tetragnathidae (30%), and Salticidae (13%). Other families recorded were Clubionidae 9%, Oxyopidae & Thomisidae 6%, Lycosidae 5%, Dictynidae & Arctiidae 3%, Uloboridae & Naphosidae 2%, Gnaphosidae, Sparassidae and Theridiidae 1%. The spider diversity index estimated as 1.31 and 1.27 in respective years. The study indicates that the post rainy season crops cultivated in the JNAU farms are harboring a great variety of spiders.