Niche partitioning and coexistence of two spiders of the genus Peucetia (Araneae, Oxyopidae) inhabiting Trichogoniopsis adenantha plants (Asterales, Asteraceae).

Niche theory suggests that the coexistence of ecologically similar species in the same site requires some form of resource partitioning that reduces or avoids interspecific competition. Here, from July 2013 to December 2015, we investigated spatial niche differentiation at three different scales of two sympatric congeneric spiders, Peucetia rubrolineata and P. flava, along an altitudinal gradient in shaded and open areas in an Atlantic forest in Serra do Japi, SP, Brazil.