Signature Spider (Backyard Census)

Description:

There are six species of Argiope Spider distributed in the Philippines, but only three of them are documented as present in the area where I live. The species known to be here, in Central Luzon, are Argiope catenulata, Argiope aemula and Argiope luzona. I have become very interested in these spiders and I enjoy learning as much as I can about them. However, when I first became interested in Argiope spiders, I did what I think most amateur naturalists do. I looked in Wikipedia and I was presented with a comprehensive list of Species. There is absolutely no doubting the accuracy of the information given and I could not have identified my first observation of an Argiope spider, without the distribution information provided. However, beyond confirmation of the presence of A. catenulata, A. aemula and A. luzona in Luzon, the information is of little practical use. Luzon is well over 100,000 square kilometres and I can scarcely cope with a few hectares. So, what I try to do is get to know my local area and jot down any “hotspots” which I think might be useful I very rarely see A. catenulata, I think I have only seen 4 or 5 in the last 10 years. I have come a.cross A. aemula, slightly more often, maybe 30 or 40 encounters in the same period. However, Argiope luzona always seems to be around and it has become my favourite spider. I can usually find one within minutes of going out to look for it, but its population seems to “wax and wane” throughout the year and I don’t know if there is a pattern to this, other than the obvious seasonal changes. I also don’t know how this would be checked scientifically, but I have decided to try and monitor, as best I can, the numbers of A. luzona that I usually see on the leaves of a group of banana plants in the rice mill backyard (one of my Argiope luzona “hotspots”. I started yesterday and just walked around, taking photos of every A. luzona that I could see and I intend to repeat this every month, for a year. Hopefully, that will give me some idea of what is going on. Of course, I am aware that there might be several spiders, too high up on the plants and out of sight, but I have to just ignore that possibility and base my "census" on what I can see. When I completed my first round, yesterday, I had 17 photos of A. luzona (13 with Discoid Stabilimenta and 4 with no Stabilimenta).

Habitat:

All 17 of these Argiope luzona spiders were spotted in the rice mill backyard, on the leaves of Banana Plants (Musa x Paradisiaca L.). Banana Plants are known generally as “Saging” in the Philippine National Language and in the local Dialect where I live, they are called “Batag”. Plant information from - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Saging.html........

Notes:

The number of Banana Plants in my little “hotspot” is only 57. There are many more (well over 200), scattered around the farm, but I should mention that our farm is not a banana plantation. It is a rice farm which just happens to have some banana plants. I selected these 57 plants, in the rice mill backyard, because it is a small, compact group which makes it easy to look for (and count) spiders on the leaves. If I had to visit all of the bananas, I might well tire of it and the project would become a chore rather than an interesting little “census” of these wonderful spiders. The initial tally of 17 spiders might seem to be very few, from 57 plants, but I really don’t know the numbers to expect here. I just know that I can usually see some A. luzona on these leaves. If I am able to repeat this photo-taking and spider-counting session every month for a year, the information collected will enable me to draw a graph which should show me, at a glance, the best times to observe my favourite spiders!