ABSTRACT

The relative abundance of spiders was evaluated among six large fields of cotton (conventional acala, Bt acala, conventional pima, and organic pima) in New Mexico. Spiders were collected both from the foliage and from the ground. Forty-one genera of spiders in nineteen families were identified. The most abundant spiders collected were wolf spiders, crab spiders, sheetweb spiders, meshweb weavers, and ghost spiders. The most common spider collected overall during this study was Pardosa sternalis. Spider populations appeared to be similar among the cotton varieties examined for foliage spiders, while numbers of ground-dwelling spiders appeared to be greatest in the Bt cotton.