Tree Stump Spider

Description:

This spotting is related to https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/15....... in which I mentioned that I had come across a scientific paper which confirmed that some Poltys spp. make their webs at dusk and disassemble them at dawn https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstrea....... That information was important because I just could not find a web when I took the photos for the earlier spotting. So, I went back to the spider at around 9:00 p.m. this evening and you can see the result. The spider had done exactly what was stated in the paper.

Habitat:

Spotted in the farm on Tropical Whiteweed (Ageratum conyzoides Linn.) known in the Philippines by various names in many dialects. In our local dialect, this plant is called Salunay. Plant information - http://stuartxchange.com/Bulak.html

Notes:

The three pictures shown here are different crops taken from one photo. Crop #1. Obviously, a dorsal view of the spider. Crop #2. An attempt to show as much as possible of the Orb Web, but tall grasses, behind the web, rather spoil the effect. Crop #3. The top left quadrant is the clearest section of the web. The most significant feature is the very narrow mesh gap in the spiral capture zone. This species of spider is ensuring that its web catches pretty much everything, no matter how small. It does not intend to go hungry :-) P.S. On going over the entire web, a little more closely, I noticed that the white "dots" which can be seen at regular intervals on every radial are (I think) aciniform silk or, at least, they are much whiter than the silk of the spiral. If this is aciniform silk, could these "dots" be some kind of stabilimentum? I have been unable to dig up any information on the dots. So, it looks like I will need to go out on one or two more night visits to my new found friend (the spider) and take some more photos of this very intriguing feature of its web, maybe some action shots to ascertain if the spots are laid down during the initial attaching of the spiral to the radials, or after completion of the entire web. The latter might indicate that these spots could be considered to be a decoration of some kind. Could that, in turn, be regarded as a stabilimentum? I have no idea, but I would love to find out.