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A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders
by Joseph K H Koh
  Leaf-Dwelling Daddy-Long-Leg
Uthina atrigularis Simon 1901
 
close-up of female carrying eggs
A female. Eggs wrapped in a few
strands of silk are carried in the jaws.
 These spiders have only six eyes. The front part of the cephalothorax of the males has a pair of "horns" on which the eyes are borne. Classification: Family Pholcidae, Daddy-Long-Leg Spiders.
Habitat: Foliage in primary rain-forests, e.g., in the Bukit Timah Hill Nature Reserve in Singapore.
Female: 4 mm.
Male: 4 mm.
Distribution: Recorded only in Singapore.
tangled web made by the spider Pholcids are long-legged spiders which construct loose tangled webs. Some of them are responsible for the "cobwebs" at neglected corners of buildings. They hang upside down in the webs and when disturbed, will vibrate themselves so vigorously that they blur themselves in the eyes of the intruder.

The jaws are fused at the base. Under a microscope, ring-like impressions are discernible on the long and apparently flexible tarsi (the last segment of the leg).
  From "A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders" by Joseph K. H. Koh
BP Guide to Nature Series published by the Singapore Science Centre and sponsored by British Petroleum
© 2000 Joseph K H Koh