The study was carried out on lowland agricultural lands in western Poland between July and August 2007. The influence of the proximity of forested areas on the occurrence of foliage-dwelling spiders was defined by measuring the abundance of spider webs on five transects situated at distances of 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 metres from the forest edge. Generally, the greatest diversity and the highest total density were observed close to the forest edge, but an opposite relation was found for orb webs, built by spiders from the families Araneidae and Tetragnathidae, whose abundance was the lowest in close proximity to the forest. At a distance of 80 metres from the forest a slight increase in total abundance of webs was recorded, no doubt due to the presence of weeds, in which were recorded numerous occurrences of sheet and irregular webs. On all the transects studied, orb webs predominated on maize shoots, whereas only three-dimensional sheet and irregular webs occurred on weeds. Included in this discussion are some of the potential effects of the proximity of forest areas on foliage-dwelling spider populations in maize fields and on the possibilities for spiders limiting this crop’s pests.
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