Punggol Park Connector
North-East, Singapore
20 August 2012
Sunny
Merlion Wayfarer was at the Punggol Park Connector today for a short 45 minutes and it was among the most bountiful sessions for her!
Big-Jawed Spider Juveniles
Somehow, Merlion Wayfarer forgot that the photos she took were mostly juveniles. She forgot about their colourless bodies, their see-through textures, and their smaller sizes. And she spent hours looking through online to ID them.
It was only after looking more closely at a few photos sequentially that she realized that what she originally thought of as a different species of spider was in fact juveniles at different periods of their lives!
Juvenile this one might be - its body isn't even properly elongated -
but look at the size of its jaws and palps at this young age!
Neoscona Nautica (Brown Sailor Spider)
Instead of finding this little one "below the ceilings of dark and poorly-maintained huts or toilets" (Koh 2000), it was right there in the open, in broad daylight. And it was big - at more than 1cm. Very obvious, as all around it were smaller big-jawed juveniles, and plop - There it was a big blob on a sheaf of grass.
Notice the shape of its head and the position of its eyes when it is in this position. Also see how its eyes can be positioned in two different directions.
Tetragnatha Mandibulata (Common Big-Jawed Spider)
Merlion Wayfarer spotted this from afar due to its size - Its total length was about her entire palm size! And thought she got lucky finding a Whip Spider or a Twig-Like Feather-Legged Spider. However, on closer examination, she realized it was a Common Big-Jawed Spider.
Behold those majestic-looking big black jaws...
Initially there was some doubt that it was even a spider. But that quickly dispelled when she saw it rappel downwards and scuttle into the bushes in lighting timing later!
Juvenile Big-Jawed Spider Attempts Dinner
As it was near dusk, the spiders were very active searching for their dinner and repairing their webs. Merlion Wayfarer was fortunate enough to catch a Day-Flying Moth fly smack into a juvenile Big-Jawed Spider's web.
Excluding the wingspan, the Moth was about three times the size of the Spider. And look at how hard the young Spider had to work to inject its venom into the Moth!
The Big-Jawed Spider's web was the sticky kind. (Not all webs are sticky!) Despite this, it could not hold the huge Moth and the Moth kept twirling and spinning. Guess it was akin to a ride on a rodeo for the spider!
Finally all the threads snapped and the Moth freefalled onto the ground. Initially it couldn't even move. It took some time for the Spider's venom to wear off before it could even flap its wings. Phew... now we all know!
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