The
first trip in the context of my project on Southeast Asian
pholcids brought me to the Philippines. Collecting concentrated on
Mindanao, but I also had the opportunity to visit some smaller islands
in the Visayas (Negros, Bohol, Camiguin, Dinagat) as well as Luzon. The
Philippines are well known for their extraordinary biodiversity, but
very few pholcid spiders had been described from the country. The
early and promising start was made by Eugène Simon, who
visited Luzon in 1889 and three years later described four species, two
of them representing new genera (Calapnita
and Uthina).
After that, not a single new pholcid species was described from the
Philippines for more than 100 years. Christa Deeleman added a couple of
species in the 1980ies (one of them the type species of the genus Panjange), and I added another six
species between 2003 and 2011 (including the type species of the genus Aetana). Our
trip reavealed very clearly that these twelve species were
nothing compared to the immense diversity to be discovered and
described. Our data suggest that the islands are home
to many dozen, more probably hundreds, of species, especially in the
genera Aetana, Belisana, Panjange, and Pholcus. Twin Lakes National Park in Negros Oriental: a beautiful pair of crater lakes surrounded by well preserved forest One major aim was
to collect representatives of some genera that had not been available
for DNA sequencing, notably Panjange,
Aetana, Calapnita, and Holocneminus. We quickly reached
this goal. Most exciting however, was the discovery of several species
(in the genus Panjange) with
strongly asymmetric male pedipalps. Genital asymmetry is common in
insects but exceedingly rare in spiders (cf. Huber et al. 2007; Huber 2010). The new cases in Panjange
heve since been published (Huber
& Nuñeza 2015). Other highlights
were the discovery of a very unusual Aetana
with highly aberrant male
pedipalps (lacking the procursus, the most distinctive male genital
structure in Pholcidae; photo below left; meanwhile published in Huber et al. 2015), and the discovery
of further
cases of egg parasitism (only one case had previously been known in
Pholcidae; meanwhile published in Johnson
et al. 2018).
This trip would have been entirely impossible without the help of Olga Nuñeza from Mindanao State University, Iligan Institute of Technology. It was only through her continuous effort and admirable organizational skills that we obtained the relevant permits. I also owe thanks to Eddie and Philip, the students who accompanied us for part of the trip, and our driver Titin who would not loose his calm even in the most hopeless traffic jams. Thanks is also due the German Research Foundation for financing this expedition (DFG Project HU 980/11-1). Female Calapnita produce very distinctive eggsacs, such as this specimen form Mt. Isarog (Luzon). |