Microhabitat Utilization of Leaf-Dwelling Pholcids (Araneae: Pholcidae) in Mount Baya, Camp Abubacar, and Dimapatoy Watershed in Mindanao, Philippines

Leaf-dwelling pholcidspiders do not eat plants but leaves serve as microhabitat necessary for their survival, proliferation, and diversification. This paper dealt with microhabitat utilization of leaf-dwelling pholcids in three selected areas of mainland Mindanao part of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Manual technique by means of turning the leaves upside down was adopted to collect samples. Eighty-five leaf dwelling pholcids under the genera Belisana Thorell, 1898, Calapnita Simon, 1892, and PholcusWalckenaer, 1805 were found to utilize four monocots Schismatoglottissp. (Araceae), Aglaonema sp. (Araceae), Homalomenaphilippinensis (Araceae), Alpinia sp. (Zingiberaceae), and palm seedling (Arecaceae) as microhabitats. Quantitative analysis showed no significant association between these plants and leaf-dwelling pholcids, however,Bodenheimer Constancy and Concentration of Relative Dominance (CRD) pointed to H. philippinensis as highly utilized by leaf-dwelling pholcids as microhabitat compared to the other plants. Furthermore, box plot analysis showed association between leaf size, leaf width, and height above the ground with the presence of leaf-dwelling pholcids. This paper provides additional data on the very limited resources on the microhabitats of pholcidae.