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Phintella piatensis
There are only 3 Phintella spp. documented in the Philippines and that might be expected to make identification fairly easy, but there is nothing easy about Phintella spiders because they are covered in very fine hairs which are extremely iridescent. However, shortly after posting this spotting (as you will see in the comments below), arne.roysland came to the rescue again with a great reference to a scientific paper. I am now confident to call this Phintella piatensis.
Spotted this morning on a banana leaf in our backyard.
The 3 documented species in the Philippines are, according to Wikipedia: P. bunyiae Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 P. piatensis Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 P. vittata, (C. L. Koch,1846).
Spotted on Nov 12, 2023
Submitted on Nov 12, 2023
2 Comments
Thanks again, Arne. I didn't get a ventral shot, so I can't check that, but I have downloaded the paper you mentioned (from researchgate.net) and I have read the relevant description on page 10. So, I am now 100% convinced. You were right from the start !! It was just my photos were not good enough.
The male piatensis: Abdomen elongated; dorsally white to yellow, with a blackish pattern; ventrally with a black dot in front of the spinnerets. Spinnerets white to yellow.
The black dot is one of the characteristics https://www.researchgate.net/publication...