The investigastion of vertical distribution and setae morphology of ground spiders (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) in Erciyes Mountain

In this study, the ground spiders distributed on Mount Erciyes were faunistically evaluated between May-September 2018-2020 and the vertical distribution and seta morphology of the identified species were determined. Faunistic evaluation of the collected specimens revealed the presence of 29 species belonging to 16 genera, of which Marjanus platnicki (Zhang, Song & Zhu, 2001) was identified as a new record for the spider fauna of Turkey. When the vertical distribution of the species was examined, it was observed that they were generally concentrated at 1500-2000 m altitudes, and the species diversity decreased with increasing altitude, and the species were classified according to their altitude tolerance. In addition, the seta morphologies of all species were determined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The seta morphology revealed the presence of 4 seta types: plumose, pinnate, lanceolate and squaomose. While two different seta types were observed in the species belonging to the genus Drassodes, most of the genera belonging to the subfamily Zelotinae were found to have no setae.