Comprehensive studies on Philippine forest spiders currently take a back seat to the larger more charismatic species. However, the introduction of exotic species as well as biodiversity studies requiring comprehensive taxonomic sampling of the country's biota, knowledge regarding these little-known understory and ground-dwelling spiders becomes all the more important.

In a nutshell, this study seeks to provide baseline data on these spiders by: 1) collecting understory and ground-dwelling spiders in the forest ecosystems and nearby habitats, and correlate the impact of forest degradation of habitat quality (i.e) type of vegetation) on spider faunal diversity; 2) identifying these spiders and determining their taxonomic diversity and relative abundance; 3) compiling information on the bionomics of this group of spiders; 4) recording distribution data and updating country inventory; and 5) producing a pictorial field guide on Philippine spiders.

The latter output of this study aims to entice students to pursue a science career in the natural sciences and arm our quarantine officials with the necessary information materials needed to conduct strict quarantine procedures.