Lichen Huntsman Spider

Description:

Sparassidae; Heteropodinae; Pandercetes sp. (poss.) I would like to suggest that this spotting should be read in conjunction with my previous spottings: https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/62... & https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/75... The spider shown here appears to be exactly the same as the Pandercetes sp. (poss.) shown in the previous two spottings. You may be forgiven if your immediate reaction is that "It is not the same !" because you would be right. I will explain in a moment. Firstly, the reason for yet another spotting on the subject of Pandercetes sp. (poss.) is that the spider in the previous spottings was in its correct habitat i.e. flattened against the branch of a tree. The result was that anyone looking at the pictures would have difficulty seeing the spider. The purpose of this additional spotting is to let everyone see how the spider looks when it is not concealed in its natural position. This one was seen clambering around on a pot plant in our front yard, in full view. So it was easy to see and photograph against that background. Now I can turn to my light-hearted "the same but different" comment above. 1. Just to clear the air, even I noticed that this spider has only 6 legs. Legs 1 & 3 on its right side are missing. I have no idea how they were lost, but I can say that if the spider moults again, it may well regrow these legs. 2. More seriously, the colour difference. When I first started seeing this kind of spider (I have encountered them numerous times in my surrounding area ) my thought was that it might be capable of changing its colour like some lizards. But the correct explanation is quite different. Dr. Jennifer Marohasy's wonderfully concise explanation can be read at: https://jennifermarohasy.com/2008/02/lic... and she includes this comment from the Queensland Museum Inquiry Centre: "Spider colour is fixed at its previous moult. A slight exception being the abdomen with its much thinner walls which may change especially according to accumulated waste products or what it has eaten. So they can’t change colour like a frog, gecko or squid. Some species of spiders that camouflage on tree bark have multiple colour forms however." Dr. Marohasy goes on to suggest that the Pandercetes spider would probably not be able to choose the background colour it wants to hide on, because of poor eyesight, but probably has other ways of detecting a suitable lichen to snuggle down on.

Habitat:

This Pandercetes sp. (poss.) was spotted on a Bottleplant Shrub (Jatropha podagrica) in our front yard. This is a completely wrong habitat for this kind of spider. I have tried to work out how it came to be there. I think I might have the answer (the clue was in the missing legs). Just about 3 or 4 ft. away from the Bottleplant, there is a large Great Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis) and deep in the prickly interior there was a nest with Yellow-vented Bulbul chicks (Pycnonotus goiavier goiavier). I suspect that one of the parent birds had snatched the spider from its proper habitat and was carrying it to the nest when the legs, it was holding in its beak, broke off and the spider fell onto the Bottleplant.

Notes:

I finally want to mention the arrangement of the eyes of Pandercetes spiders which is different from other Sparassidae. I hope my enlargement shows it clearly, Dr. Marohasy describes it in Part 1 of her blog as follows: " the orientation of the eight eyes; four looking down the surface of the tree, two looking back up the tree and two looking outward." Pandercetes info - https://jennifermarohasy.com/2007/10/lic... & https://jennifermarohasy.com/2008/02/lic... Plant info - http://www.stuartxchange.org/BuddhaBelly... & http://www.stuartxchange.org/Bogambilya