Ghost Spider

Description:

Neoscona punctigera - the Ghost Spider. I placed the photo of the hatchling spiders first, because they caught my attention before I spotted the adult female, their mother. I have been visiting various Mango Trees in the farm, over the last few days, because we are experienciing a particularly harsh dry season (in our local area) and it has become more difficult to spot insects and spiders in my regular haunts. Fortunately, the Mangos (being deep rooted) always seem to do well, in these dry spells, and they attract more than their usual share of bugs. I mention all of this because when I visited this tree yesterday, these baby spiders were not there. They must have hatched and emerged from their egg sac during the night. I did not notice the mother spider, yesterday, because she was well concealed in her little retreat. So, it was all a great surprise today. The female's retreat (second photo) is just a few inches away from the mass of hatchlings and I think she is keeping an eye on them. Her little nest (retreat) is simple enough. It looks like she has pulled and twisted a leaf into a kind of cradle and lined it with silk. I did not see her orb web (I am sure she must have one to provide her with prey). I also did not see the egg sac. For those who are not familiar with Mango Trees, they have very dense foliage and it can be quite difficult to see anything in there. Obviously, it is not be a good idea to start bending twigs and branches out of the way, to get a better view, That just startles the creatures and greatly reduces your chance of any decent photos. The last photo was a lucky shot because I think it shows the entire group of hatchlings.

Habitat:

Spotted in the farm on a Mango Tree (Mangifera indica Linn.) locally known as Mangang-kalabau. Plant information from - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Mangga.html..........................

Notes:

Neoscona punctigera is one of the spiders that is used in spider fighting (a gambling sport in the Philippines). A paper has been written about this by three leading Filipino academics. It can be downloaded at https://bepls.com/beplsjan2016/2.pdf.....