DIVERSITY OF GROUND-LIVING SPIDERS AT NGOME STATE FOREST, KWAZULU NATAL - A COMPARATIVE SURVEY IN INDIGENOUS FOREST AND PINE PLANTATIONS/

A survey of ground-living spiders was conducted over a one-year period at Ngome State Forest, Kwazula/Natal. Five different habitat types: g rass, open forest, dense forest, ecotone and pine, were sampled with 1 80 pitfall traps. The grass, open forest and dense forest represented indigenous vegetation while the pine represented exotic vegetation. Th e ecotone consisted of a mixture of indigenous forest plants and pine trees. Pine had the lowest spider diversity while grass had the highes t spider diversity. However, variation in spider diversity within habi tat types was considerable and an analysis of variance found no signif icant difference in mean values of spider diversity between habitat ty pes. Consequently, the results do not unambiguously support the hypoth esis that exotic vegetation has lower ground-living spider diversity t han indigenous vegetation.