Unidentified Spider Hatchlings

Description:

These spiderlings were spotted yesterday morning at around 9:00 a.m. My first reactions were "Where is the mother spider?" and "Where is the egg sac?". Tiny hatchling spiders can be identified, without too much difficulty, if the mother and/or the egg sac can be seen. In this case, neither could be found. So, I thought that I might be able to recognise the eye pattern of the hatchlings and that would give me the name of the family. However, the picture quality is not clear enought to help in that way. These little spiders are just too small for my photographic ability. I suspect that they are Uloborids because the two most common spiders that I have observed on these banana plants (see habitat) are are Uloborus sp. and Argiope luzona. Since A. luzona hatchlings congregate in a three-dimensional cluster of silk strands (and are never seen on the flat surface of a leaf), they can be ruled out. That leaves me thinking Ulobrus sp., the second most common spider (behind Argiope luzona) that I see frequently on these banana plants. I feel that trying to identify these little spiders, by a process of elimination, is probably a step too far. So, with a little more caution, I have opted for Unidentified Araneidae. I am sure that this group of spiders will disperse, in a day or so, but if I am lucky, one or two might remain on that particular banana plant and I might have another chance of a better I.D. when they have grown a little more.

Habitat:

These spider hatchlings were spotted in the rice mill backyard. They were on the leaf of a Banana Plant (Musa x paradisiaca L.) known throughout much of the Philippines as Saging, but in the local dialect, where I live, it is called Batag. Plant information - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Saging.html...

Notes:

Despite the poor picture quality, it is still possible to see that some of these spiderlings have swollen abdomens. That indicates that they are probably about to moult and, if I can see some of them in the next stage of growth, my chances of identification should improve.