Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis Studia Naturae, 2: 39–56, 2017, ISSN 2543-8832 DOI: 10.24917/25438832.2.3 Valerián Franc*, Michal Fašanga Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Matej Bel University, Tajovského 40, 97401 Banská Bystrica, *
[email protected] Spiders (Araneae) of the abandoned pasture near the village of Malé Kršteňany (Western Slovakia) Introduction Our research site is located on the SE slope of the hill of Drieňový vrch (cadaster of the village of Malé Kršteňany). It is the southernmost edge of the Strážovské vrchy Mountains (Mts) (48°55ʹ46ʹʹN; 18°26ʹ05ʹʹE), separated from the central massif by the river ow Nitrica. is area is considerably inuenced by human activity: In the past, it had massive deforestation and agricultural use (mainly as pasture), recently, it is dominated by mining activities (several quarries). e whole area is out of the territo- rial protection, with the exception of the little Nature reserve Veľký vrch, surrounded by two quarries, and the le one is more or less abandoned. In the past, this area was used mainly for grazing, but this is currently very limited. Our research site is an aban- doned pasture; therefore, ecological succession is carried out intensively here. Forgot- ten aer-utility areas (abandoned quarries, pastures, industrial sites) are usually con- sidered to be ‘sterile’ and unattractive for zoological research, but this may not always correspond to reality. Even in our research site, we have carried out several rare and surprising ndings. We would like to present the results of our research in this paper. It is sad, but a large amount of abandoned pastures is scattered throughout Slova- kia.