Weekly Series
Nature Weekly
Short Notes on Nature Singapore

15 January 2017 | Spiders at the Park |

In December last year, I received a query from Nicky Bay, an expert in macro photography, related to the locations of 2 spiders that were of interested to him. At the same time, he had kindly helped me with the identification of a number of unknown spiders in my photo deck. Unfortunately, he was not able to find the spider in the location provided. The last time I saw this particular spider (Pasilobus species), a member of the bird dung spiders, was in May 2014.

I decided to try my luck to locate the bird dung spider again last Saturday. It was a really hot afternoon when I ventured out to the park. After searching for hours in the park, not a single bird dung spider was found. Nevertheless, there were plenty of other spiders around. In all, I had at least spotted 10 different types of spiders. Pictures from 8 of them were shown below. The other 2 were Nephila pilipes (Giant Wood Spider) which I did not take any of its picture while the other was a crab spider (Camaricus maugei) where I did not manage to get any good picture.

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photo Of the 8 spiders, 5 of them were relatively common. Another one was an unknown orb-weaver spider from the family Araneidae. The remaining 2 were from the family Theridiidae. Of the 2, the one with a triangular body was unknown while the other one was Achaearanea mundula (Rolled-leaf Comb-footed Spider). The unorganised web of the Rolled-leaf Comb-footed Spider was very similar to the web set up by the Red Tent Spider (Cyrtophora unicolor). When I first saw the spider web, I thought it was just another of the Red Tent Spider.

While looking for spider on a Bintangor Bunut tree (Calophyllum soulattri), I spotted a group of spiderlings; more than 20 of them. Due to their tiny size and whitish appearance, it was difficult to take any good picture.

I will have to try my luck on the bird dung spider at another time.

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