鳥取平野残存林における大型土壌節足動物の多様性とその保全

Soli arthropod diversity was investigated on 15 fragmented woodlands in the Tottori Plains, Tottori Prefecture, Honshu, Japan. The species-area relationships were compared between different groups of arthropods (three orders of Arachnida - Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, and Diplopoda). The z-values obtained for all the arthropods analyzed and spiders alone were 0.09 and 0.11, respectively. These values are rather smaller then those usually reported for mammals or birds (0.15-0.40). It was found that even a rather small woodland fragment can hold a considerable number of species for pseudoscorpiones and millipeds. To maintain the maximum species diversity of these animals, conservation between populations or a checkerboard pattern of distribution between two closely related species due to interspecific competition is encountered.