Leaf Roller Sac Spider

Description:

The pattern of the eyes of this spider immediately led me to the Family Clubionidae, but then things became slightly more difficult. In Wikipedia's List of Clubionidae species, there are around 500 to 600 species and the vast majority of them were printed in red (That’s how wiki tells us that it has no picture of that species). A quick visit to inaturalist showed that my specimen was almost certainly from the Clubiona. Good, now comes the crunch, how many of the listed species of Clubiona are present in the Philippines. The answer is 20. Then I saw that only 6 species from other genera were present in the Philippines. So, it’s a cake-walk. All I have to do is look at 26 Clubionidae spp. And see which of them looks like my specimen. The answer is….I have no chance of finding out ! because not a single one, of the 26 species listed, has a picture in Wiki’s article. So, for this one, the best I can do is Family Clubionidae. Pic #1. 6th., May at 4:11 p.m. At first glance, I thought that I was looking at the night retreat of a Salticid, but that seemed unlikely as it was just after 4:00 p.m. and a Jumper would be out hunting. You will see some small cuts in the silk sac. I did not know if the spider was cutting a hole to exit the sac or, maybe a predator had been trying to get to the spider. Only time would tell. So, I tied a label to the plant to enable me to find it easily, knowing that this might take a few return visits, which it did. I eventually took 17 photos - a little more than could be fitted into a spotting, but the six shown here pretty much tell the story. Pic #2. 7th., May at 7:57 a.m. The cuts were still there, but it seemed that nothing else had happened. So, that ruled out the spider making an exit. It most probably was an attempted predation. Subsequent visits, over the next two days showed no changes. Pic #3. 9th., May at 7:04 a.m. Shows a good-sized hole in the sac. No matter what contortions and twists I tried, I just could not get a photo through the hole to see if my spider (if, indeed, it was a spider) was gone. Pic #4. 9th., May at 7:06 a.m. Exactly the same as #3, but from a different angle and, as I took the shot, I was sure I saw a movement. Pic #5. 9th., May at 7:08 a.m. There it was! A spider, making its way out of the sac. Pic #6. 9th., May at 7:10 a.m. At last, I was able to see the spider well enough to attempt an identification.

Habitat:

This Clubiona sp. was spotted in our backyard vegetable plot, on an Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), commonly called Talong in the Philippines. Plant information from - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Talong.html...................

Notes:

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cl............ the following Sac Spiders are present in the Philippines. GENUS CLUBIONA: C. bukaea C. charleneae C. dikita C. hugispaa C. hugisva C. japonicola C. kapataganensis C. katioryza C. krisisensis C. leonilae C. maysangarta C. pahilistapyasea C. paranghinlalakirta C. parangunikarta C. pototanensis C. topakea C. unanoa C. unikarta C. victoriaensis C. zandstrai GENUS ELAVER: E. kawitpaaia E. turongdaliriana GENUS MATIDIA: M. paranga GENUS NUSATIDIA: N. luzonica N. manipisea GENUS SIMALIO: S. petilus. My spider must surely be one of above species, but due to the lack of pictures, for comparison purposes, I have no way of knowing which.