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Stretch Spider
Tetragnatha sp.
15.4563, 119.92
Field Notes
Description:
Tetragnathidae; Tetragnathinae; Tetragnatha sp. According to Wikipedia, there are 320 species and 10 subspecies in the Genus: Tetragnatha. That would be a fairly daunting number even if there were images of all of them available to compare. So I was relieved when I scrolled down the list and saw that there are only 8 species in Philippines. I have pictures of 3 Tetragnatha spp. in my collection, the one shown here and two others. So I set out, enthusiastically, hoping to have some success in identifying them. Unfortunately, the only one I could find was T. mandibulata Walckenaer, 1841 and it does not match any of my photos. So I have no choice, but to upload this one as Tetragnatha sp. in the hope that someone out there knows the species. I will do the same for the other two.
Habitat:
This Stretch Spider was spotted in the same rice field and on the same day as the one shown in https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/264236004. There are some similarities but they are clearly not the same species. This one may be a little more interesting because it is feeding on prey wrapped in silk. despite the poor quality of photo, if you zoom in, you can see a drop of fluid oozing out of the wrapping as the spider feeds. I have taken some videos from time to time of spiders wrapping, stinging and eventually consuming their prey. However, this is the only photo I have which shows that the prey insect's inner organs are truly liquified by the spider's venom.
Notes:
I only got one usable picture of this spider. The second image is, as can be seen, just a crop to try and show the spider feeding. Apologies for my poor photography.
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