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Fergusson College 'Spiderman' records 60 species on campus

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Ashwin Warudkar, BSc student from Fergusson college who is also known as the Spiderman his college
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Pune: Founded by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one of Pune's most prestigious institutions, Fegusson College, is home to as many as 60 species of spiders.
Ashwin Warudkar, a BSc (Zoology) from the college, had found this in his two-year study on spiders on the campus. Fondly called the 'Spiderman' of Fegusson College, Warudkar is known for his love of the insects.
Ashwin, who passed out this year, during his graduation had carried out the a research titled 'Study of Urbanization and Diversity of Spiders in Fergusson Campus' under the Unversity Grant Commission's College with Potential for Excellence (CPE) scheme and found out that the ecosystem for spiders in the campus is facing gradual degradation and fragmentation due to human interference like burning of litter, deposition of plastic garbage, burning of grass and removal of tree barks.

"In my study, I have reported more than 60 species, including many new species. I also found that some species were nearing extinction," he said.


However, Warudkar is not the first FC student who was fascinated by the spiders on the campus. Another research was conducted in 2006 by a student from the Zoology department.
"There are some spiders which were recorded in the earlier research, but they were not found during my research. Those are spiders like the Sason Cinctipes, commonly called as Coin Trapdoor or a Mygalomorph spider," he said. But Warudkar himself had found a few new species.
"The giant wood spider Nephila SP, which is considered as a harmful venomous spider, is reported in the study," he said.
Warudkar had been fond of spiders since his childhood and hence decided to study them as part of his project. Wardukar not only created an updated checklist of spider fauna in the college but also wanted to study their distribution at the family level and their netbuilding pattern.
He said that conservation of spiders is needed as they are an important aspect in the whole chain of ecosystem. "The spiders are exclusively predators and largely feed on smaller insects and as far as the food chain is concerned, spiders are the most important species in the whole chain," he said.
He also said that since they feed on insects, which feed on trees and plants, spiders actually help to keep the ecological balance. Hence, their conservation is much needed.

"I managed to carry out the research with the great support and guidance of assistant professor Dr Pramod Phirke and Dr KD Pendharkar, HoD of Zoology department," he added.

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