Effects of pesticides on agrobiont spiders in laboratory and field

Present study was designed to evaluate the toxicity of confidor and buctril-m on two dominant spiders of wheat ecosystem of punjab,pakistan i.e.,lycosa terrestris butt,anwar & tahir,2006 and oxyopes javanus thorell,1887. residual toxicity of pesticides on these spiders in the laboratory and in the fields was also studied. buctril-m was found less toxic compared to confidor for both species. mortality of both spider species declined with the increase of post sprayed time for both pesticides. altogether we captured 2260 individuals of l. terrestris (707 from treated field and 1553 from control field)-. similarly,in total of 637 individuals of oxyopes javanus were collected (212 from treated and 425 from control) from the studied plots. it is concluded that toxicity of confidor is higher than buctril-m. moverover,confodor remains active for longer time in the field compared to buctril-m. copyright 2015 zoological society of pakistan.