Spiders of Serbia

By Christo C. Deltshev, et al.
December 2003
Institut za Zoologiju
ISBN: 86-7078-020-8
832 pages, 7 ½" x 9 ¾"
$395.00 Hardcover

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The territory of Serbia is home to 618 spider species, belonging to 36 families. The number of species was established after a critical review of the existing literature and intensive faunistic research for the accumulation of new data. This makes possible a critical taxonomic and faunistic review, together with a zoogeographical analysis. The number of species is comparatively high in relation to the number of species recorded from other countries of the Balkan Peninsula. The highest number of species are recorded for the territories of Bulgaria (910), Greece (810) and Croatia (615). This biodiversity depends on the size of the regions, their variety, as well as on the degree of exploration by researchers. According to their current distribution, the established 618 species can be relegated to 25 zoogeographical categories categories, grouped into 5 complexes (cosmopolitan, widely distributed, European, endemics, Mediterranean). The largest number of species belongs to the widely distributed complex and the most characteristic species are the endemics. The number of endemic species established (21) is comparatively high and reflects the local character of the fauna. This phenomena can be regarded as a result of the relative isolation of the mountains on the Balkan peninsula compared with the lowlands in the context of paleo-environmental changes during the Tertiary.

Entomology, Zoology
Monographs, Vol. 7. Institute of Zoology

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