الفهرس 
INTRODUCTION
AIMS OF THE WORKOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Spiders form one of the most species rich group in the animal kingdom. They belong taxonomically to: (Class: Arachnida- order: Araneae). They inhabit all kinds of terrestrial ecosystems, with more than 47,305 spider’s species belonging to 116 families described so far and many thousands still awaiting discovery and description. In Egypt, till now there are 41 Families belong to 204 genera and 405species recorded. Spiders are all carnivorous and generalist feeders with great species richness in every type of terrestrial habitat, and they are potential biocontrol agents and have established as a model group in biochemical (silk and venom proteins), behavioural (sexual and web building) and ecological (foraging and prey-predator interaction) research. They are also utilized as ecological indicators in many terrestrial communities. On reviewing literature focused on the study of spiders in Egypt, the initial works on the Egyptian species were focused on almost exclusively on the identification of the species and building up a relatively large faunal list. Also, the subsequent studies which focused on the ecology of spiders were scarce and mainly concentrated on Lower Egypt. So, the present study was designed to carry out the following points: 1- Survey the spiders in different habitats at Assiut Governorate. 2- Identify the collected species of spiders at Assiut Governorate. 3- Design a preliminary key for identification of collected spiders’ families and species. 4- Make a diagnostic description for all collected families and species. >5- Study the seasonal and horizontal distribution of different collected species. 6- Study the effects of some physical factors including temperature, relative humidity, evaporation and wind velocity on the relative abundance of the collected species.