The Composition of a Colony of Philoponella raffrayi (Uloboridae) in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

A colony of Philoponella raffrayi (Simon, 1891) was observed in the undergrowth of the secondary forest of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The communal web was made up of 1) numerous females’ orb-webs surrounding the colony, 2) strong sustainable silks which constitute irregular framework of the colony, and 3) irregular webs forming the center of the colony where males dominantly exist. The numbers of adult females, adult males, and juvenile females were 61, 15 and 2, respectively. The distribution of the developmental stages of the individuals in the colony indicates that the spiders have matured simultaneously. Three other species of spiders, Portia sp. Leucauge sp. and Argyrodes sp. were collected in the colony of P. raffrayi. © 1992, Arachnological Society of Japan. All rights reserved.