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Hersilia sp.
Two-tailed spider - in my rubber-tree plantation, NE Thailand. Perfectly camouflaged, this spider is hardly visible. The third photo shows the bark of a rubber-tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and there is a spider on it....
Rubber-plantation
Congratulations, JoeHartman. This spotting sure deserve to be SOTD!!
Love your spottings, keep sharing.
great spotting ....... u can add it to the mission Mimetic animals of the world http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8015...
Congrats Joe! Your keen eyes have earned you another Spotting of the Day!
Can you spot the organism in today’s spotting of the day? The two-tailed spider superbly mimics the bark of a rubber tree and its extremely flat body casts no shadow, making it almost invisible to potential predators and prey alike.
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Latex embezzlers?! who would have guessed. Good luck with the studded upholstery question... I have no ideas on that one.
Mark, I got them in my rubber-plantation, on each tree is at least one.
Last year I started to tap the rubber but after kicking out personnel because of cheating I did it a while myself. So, in the late evening, early night, I walk with a headlamp from tree to tree. I'm concentrated on cutting the bark carefully. Suddenly something "attacks" me, in as you say rocket speed. They stop close to my head and wait. When I near them they run away to the other side of the tree. They do nothing special, just defend "their" tree, by attacking with speed. I managed to shoot pics during the day as I knew they are there and it is just a matter of patience before you find one. I admire their ability to adapt totally to the background. Also seen from the side, they make themselves very flat, so it's even hard to see their silhouette at the edge of the tree. I'm still searching for an answer to the 8 holes they have on the dorsal side of the abdomen. To me they have a function, whether it be ventilation, respiration or detecting underground colours and adapt their own colouring. I haven't found an answer yet, so I keep searching.
Our Hersiliidae (Australia) are being reviewed also which made me look closer at this one. I suppose reviews make life difficult now but better in the long run. I agree I couldn't find H asiatica that looked exactly right either so good choice then. :) I was also wondering if the Thai ones move fast - ours are little rockets and incredibly aware.
Spotted on Jan 2, 2013
Submitted on Oct 8, 2013
+2
