Improphantes geniculatus (Kulczyński 1898) is a rare steppe spider species, known from a few locations in Central Europe and from Southern part of Russia. Authors give information about afirst location of I. geniculatus in Poland, affirmed which is in “Góry Pieprzowe” Reserve near Sandomierz.
This paper presents information about the catching in Poland of a very rare species of spider Karita paludosa (Duffey 1971). On the basis of the collected specimen a description and pictures illustrating the diagnostic characters of the female spiders K. paludosa have been made as well as a map of the distribution of this species in Europe.
The occurrence of Palliduphantes ericaeus (Blackwall) was recorded in the course of investigation of araneofauna carried in environmental studies in the area of a planned gasport in Świnoujście. This spider species has not been so far recorded from Poland. The recorded occurrence of P. ericaeus in Świnoujście is the farthest eastern site of this rare european species in Central Europe.
Spiders are considered to be sensitive to habitat pollution, but the effect of sulphur contamination on spider communities is poorly known and studied, although the impact of sulphur can be realized by the changes of soils and forest community. This work examined the diversity of ground-dwelling spiders in sulphur-contaminated habitat among three types of studied biotopes (deforested area, thicket, spruce forest) in the area of the Karkonosze Mountains (Sudetes Mountain System) in Poland. In the late 1970s and 1980s, a large-area forest decline in Sudetes Mountains, mainly derived from industrial emissions caused drastic changes in abiotic environment leading to the fundamental forest ecosystem transformation. The results of these damages were studied directly after the forest decline took place. Nowadays, more than 20 years after the ecological disaster, 13 sites were chosen according to habitat type to study the long-term impact of sulphur on spiders. The sites with high and low sulphur content in soil were not significantly different with regard to spider species diversity, although the most deforested sites were characterized by the lower values of sulphur. The only significant positive correlation found was the dependence between spiders' diversity and plant richness. All studied habitats were characterized by different community structure, although thickets was the most diverse with predomination of Linyphiids and Lycosids.