Within the last few decades arachnology in the Neotropical region has experienced a great
development filling the knowledge gap in one of the most diverse regions of the world.
Nevertheless large geographical areas remain poorly sampled especially within the Amazon and
new genera and species have been continuously discovered even in urban areas. In congruence
with the recent improvements in research several aspects of the ecology behaviour and natural
history of spiders such as interactions with other predators and parasitoids social
interactions dispersal patterns habitat requirements mating behaviors among others are
being carefully investigated. These recent contributions incorporate substantial information on
the preexisting knowledge on these subjects every year. Our main objective with this book is to
present a summary on these new researches and on the currently knowledge on the main subjects
involved in the general theme emphasizing the contribution of the rich fauna of the
Neotropical region to the research of behaviour and ecology of the spiders.
