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Jumping Spider
Telamonia masinloc
15.4555, 119.919
Field Notes
Description:
Salticidae; Salticinae; Plexippini; Telamonia masinloc Barrion & Litsinger, 1995. The specimen shown here is a male. It is easily distinguishable from the female which has none of the heavy striping on the cephalothorax and abdomen.
Habitat:
This spider was spotted in a rice field which, at that time, was overgrown with weeds. This particular field has an insufficient water supply to enable irrigation. So after the harvest (late September or early October) it is left fallow and soon becomes a kind of rich tropical meadow, supporting countless species. When the dry season reaches its peak, much of this wild growth starts to wither and die, but not all. There are some extremely hardy grasses and foliage which survive right up to the time the field is ploughed for the new planting season.
Notes:
What I describe in "Habitat" above is an age old method of rice production, dating back to the era when humans were gradually giving up their hunter/gatherer lifestyle in favour of farming. I often reflect on the predicament facing all of the wild creatures which have had to constantly adapt to survive in the face of man's population explosion and the changes rapidly taking place to increase food production. For the reasons given, the rice field mentioned above has one crop per year. Nearby, some other fields have access to irrigation and produce up to three crops every year. This, of course, involves extensive use of fertilizers and insecticides and I fear that it is becoming impossible for wildlife to adapt fast enough.
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