Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Fishing Spiders - 19th December

This post is prompted by a discussion I had recently with a visiting birder/ fish expert. When I first arrived in The Philippines I took a hike up Makiling, and spent some time exploring one of the small stream beds. In a pool there I found what I took to be Fishing Spiders, and anticipated that I would see them often. As is often the case I never saw them again, despite searching every time I get into the right kind of habitat. I never properly identified them, so if anyone can help with that I'd be very grateful.

These first two were close together on the water. They are quite different to look at, but are almost exactly the same size, and I took them to be the same species, possible a male and female?

This is a Fishing Spider, Thalassius albocinctus. I found these a number of times while living in Lao PDR. Quite a different structure from the two in The Philippines. The legs in particular are quite different; being more flat to the surface of the water, of more even lengths, and more evenly spaced. This species is said to occur in The Philippines as well, however the above photographs show a spider of a different structure, which surely must be a different species.

1 comment:

  1. The fishing spider is like a starfish.Nice pics. I found spider photos on http://mindnetworks.blogspot.com/2013/10/spiders-of-philippines.html also. There are many more out in the wild waiting to be named or photographed

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