Abstract
Spiders are a highly diverse but poorly studied group of invertebrates in the tropics known to be sensitive indicators of habitat alterations. This study in three degraded tropical rainforest fragments in the southern Western Ghats assesses the utility of four sampling methods to document spider communities. Using belt transects, vegetation beating, leaf litter extraction, and pitfall traps, 103 spider morphospecies were detected in the three fragments. More species and individuals were recorded per unit effort in transects than vegetation beating, and in transects in the fragment with higher tree and shrub densities. Transects were also more appropriate for collection of natural history information and for identifying spiders to morphospecies. The composition of spider functional groups varied significantly across the four methods and a combination of methods is likely to yield a more complete inventory of the spider community.