Single and Combined Effects of Cu and Pb on Life History Traits of Lycosa Terrestris and Pardosa Birmanica (araneae, Lycosidae)

Heavy metals are known to modulate the life history traits of spider species. This study aimed to explore the divergence in life-history traits, including survival, growth, development, and reproduction, in Pardosa birmanica and Lycosa terrestris housed on artificial soil or fed artificial food containing10mM of CuSO4 and10mM of PbCl2 either separately or in a binary mixture(i.e., 10 mM CuSO4 + 10 mM PbCl2) from 4thto 8th instars under lab-oratory conditions. The results revealed that all metals treatments caused developmental delays, and reduced growth rate. Metals treated females laid lower number of eggs with high hatching success but prolonged hatching time. The co-exposure of metals had great potential to affect the life-history traits of spiders than did Cu or Pb alone, specially by dietary uptake. This study demonstrated that the lifehistory traits of spider's species provided sensitive endpoints and biomarkers for ecotoxicological risk assessments. Spiders are beneficial sentinel species and bioindicators because they help us monitor the risk to the organisms themselves and the ecosystem.