A contribution to the knowledge of the spider fauna of the wider Haloze region (northeast Slovenia)

. A list of spider species collected in the wider Haloze region during the summer of 2002 is given. Altogether, 76 species belonging to 54 genera and 22 families were recorded at 43 localities, representing the first comprehensive spider list of Haloze. Dipoena braccata (Theridiidae) and Scotophaeus scutulatus (Ganphosidae) are new records for the Slovenian fauna. In addition, the water spider (Argyroneta aquatica), a vulnerable species in Slovenia, was found in one of the Drava River branches.


Introduction
North-eastern Slovenia is one of the least known regions as far as the spider fauna of Slovenia is concerned.Comprehensive data on spiders in the region consists of records from Kozjansko (Kuntner 1996, Kuntner & Baxter 1997) and southern Slovenske Gorice with the Drava valley around Središče (Kuntner 1999, Kuntner & Šereg 2002), but more opportunistic records are the species listed at a single locality near Ljutomer (Polenec 1974) and a record of the cave spider Troglohyphantes thaleri by Miller & Polenec (1975).
NATURA SLOVENIAE 6(2): [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Zveza za tehnično kulturo Slovenije, Ljubljana, 2004 Haloze is an intensively cultivated area south of the Drava and Dravinja rivers.It reaches the hills of Boč, Donačka gora and Macelj in the south and stretches from the Croatian border in the east to south of Makole in the west.A spider species list of Haloze has not been available so far, except for the records of Mendoza canestrinii from Ptujsko jezero (Fišer & Kostanjšek 2001) and of four common species near Kidričevo (Vogrin 2002).The present study therefore provides the first comprehensive data on the spider fauna of Haloze.

Materials and methods
Spiders were collected during the summer of 2002 at 43 localities (see List of localities) by hand, sweep net, pitfall traps with ethylene glycol leaf litter sifting, and were fixed in 70 % ethanol.Various keys (Roberts 1993a, b, 1995, Nentwig et al. 2003) were used for species identification.

List of localities
The list of localities contains a short description of the collecting site, Gauss-Krüger coordinates, UTM square, altitude and date of the collection.Unless stated otherwise, all collections were made by the author and Tjaša Lokovšek.(Platnick, 2005).According to Nentwig et al. (2003), the species inhabits warmer habitats and is rarely found.However, it has been recorded throughout Europe (Blick et al. 2004), including countries adjacent to Slovenia: Italy (Stoch 2003), Austria (Knoflach & Thaler 1998) and Hungary (Samu & Szinetár 1999).In the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the species has been recorded in Croatia (Nikolić & Polenec 1981) and Serbia (Deltshev et al. 2003).
Sco ophaeus scutulatus (L.Koch, 1866) is distributed in Europe and Algeria (Platnick 2005).The species is commonly synanthropic and rare in natural habitats (Nentwig et al. 2003).It has been recorded in Northern and Central Europe (Blick et al. 2004), Italy (Stoch 2003), Austria (Knoflach 2004), Hungary (Samu & Szinetár 1999).In the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the species has been recorded in Croatia (Nikolić & Polenec 1981, Deltshev et al. 2003).t Argyroneta aquatica (Clerck, 1757), commonly known as the water spider, was found in a branch of the Drava River.Argyroneta aquatica is the only European spider adapted to spend most of its life underwater.Due to its dependence on standing waters, which have become endangered due to various human activities, and its apparent rarity, Kuntner (2001) proposed the species to be classified as vulnerable (IUCN status: V), and the Red data list of Slovenian spiders (Ur.l.RS MP 82/02: 8893-8975) lists it as such.
Although intensive cultivation considerably influences the environment in the area, humid meadows, areas in vicinity of the water sources, dry grasslands on the southern exposed slopes as well as fragments of mixed and deciduous forests are the habitats with seemingly higher abundances of spiders in the region.The results of the present study support further research of the spider fauna in Haloze, which would provide useful background for the regional conservation efforts, like Šturmovci Nature Park, and improve our scarce knowledge of the Slovenian spider fauna.