The southern area of the Atlantic Rainforest in the state of Bahia is suffering an accelerated fragmentation process by antropic action with the consequent alteration in the faunistic composition. The spiders are one of the dominant faunistic groups, and its importance for the stability of the ecosystems is unquestionable. The present research aim the investigating and comparing relative abundance and composition in species of soil spiders in the six environments forests: cocoa plantation in cabruca, capoeira, edge and interior of forest fragment, and edge and interior of continuous forest, located near the cities of Ilhéus and Una, state of Bahia. Six replicates were carried out in each environments, totalizing 36 sampling transects. In each transect 10 pitfall traps, with 6,0 cm opening diameter, were placed in straight lines, 15 m from each other. The preserving liquid used was formol 4% and the pitfall traps were left in the field for seven days. A total of four carried out between October/1999 and September/2000. The occurrence of 98 morphospecies, belonging to 38 genera and 30 families was verified. Of a total of the 2090 collected spiders only the 1450 adult specimens were used for the statistical analysis. The most abundant families were Salticidae (26,55%), Oonopidae (20,07%) and Pholcidae (7,03%). In relation to species richness, the families that stood out were Salticidae (34,69%), Oonopidae (9,18%), Corinnidae and Ctenidae (5,1%). It was not possible to detect differences between relative abundance and species composition of the sampled environments. However, the maintenance of the considered environments is important in order to preserve the araneofauna in the southern area of Bahia, once they represent the local landscape.
Atlantic Forest; spiders; soil; Neotropical; pitfall traps
