After the severe windthrows caused by the storm "Vivian" in 1990 the arthropod fauna was assessed for up to ten years after the storm in three regions in the Eastern Swiss Alps. A total of 1.683 arthropod species were identified. Windthrow areas yielded 35-69% more species than the intact forest plot. Species composition but not species numbers differed between cleared and uncleared windthrow areas. Saproxylic beetles were more abundant on uncleared areas. Extrapolation of rarefaction functions revealed that a combination of cleared and uncleared areas enhances biodiversity significantly by 22% as compared to a single treatment.