eTawau > Environment > Old Rubber Plantation, Ladang Table

Old Rubber Plantation, Ladang Table

A patch of old rubber trees, about the size of a football field, left standing inside an oil palm plantation at Ladang Table, Merotai

Fifty years ago this land was a rubber plantation. A new owner took it over and converted it to oil palm; that plantation is Ladang Table. One piece of the old rubber was left standing, a patch of old rubber trees about the size of a football field.

Between 2005 and 2010, this patch of old rubber was where the photographer usually came to make observations. This page collects what has been recorded at Ladang Table on this site.

At a glance
Where
Ladang Table, Merotai, Tawau District, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Merotai is a sub-district (mukim) of Tawau District, in the Tawau Division.
What is there
An oil palm plantation (Ladang Table), converted from rubber, with a remnant patch of old rubber trees about the size of a football field. The 2020 spider records mention low bush beside a stream.
Records on this site
Seven animals on three dates, 2011–2020: six spiders and one ant (listed below).
Name used for records
"TABLE" or "Ladang Table" on the older pages.
About the name. "Old Rubber Plantation" is the photographer's own name for the patch of old rubber trees. It is not an official name and will not be found on a map. "Ladang Table" (ladang is Malay for plantation or estate) is the oil palm plantation around it. The records below were labelled "TABLE" or "Ladang Table" when they were made, and the labels do not say whether each one was in the old rubber or in the oil palm.

A short history of Ladang Table

Only points that have been checked against a written source are given here, each with its source.

The land is now oil palm. The patch of old rubber trees on this page is a leftover from the rubber years.

Not included because not yet checked: the dates and names of the pre-war estate divisions, a plantation railway, the factory at Bombalai, and the name of the housing area. They can be added when a written source is found.

Most recent record

A black ant with a golden-haired head and thorax and a round glossy black abdomen, standing on a green leaf in low sun.

Golden-haired spiny ant, Polyrhachis (Formicidae) — 13 July 2015, 17:07.
Glossy black, with golden hairs on the head and thorax, on a broad leaf in low afternoon sun. Unlike most ants it hardly moved, and stayed for 26 photographs. Field record

All records from Ladang Table

Every animal recorded on this site from Ladang Table, by date.

DateGroupRecord
22 May 2011SpiderNursery-web spider Hygropoda sp. TABLE (Pisauridae), a male, 23 mm, in the spiders of Borneo list
13 Jul 2015SpiderNursery-web spider Sphedanus sp. TABLE (Pisauridae), a female eating an insect, in the spiders of Borneo list
13 Jul 2015AntGolden-haired spiny ant Polyrhachis, standing still on a broad leaf
27 Aug 2020SpiderOpadometa sp. TABLE 1 (Tetragnathidae), a female, 8 mm, low bush beside a stream
27 Aug 2020SpiderOpadometa sp. TABLE 2 (Tetragnathidae), a female, 7 mm, low bush beside a stream
27 Aug 2020SpiderLeucauge sp. TABLE 2 (Tetragnathidae), a female, 7 mm, low bush beside a stream
27 Aug 2020SpiderLeucauge decorata (Tetragnathidae), a female, 7 mm, low bush beside a stream

Spider names with "TABLE" in them (for example Opadometa sp. TABLE 1) are working names for spiders not yet named to species; the place is part of the name. Dates and sizes are from the spider pages. No records from the 2005–2010 visits are on this site yet.

Related pages

Page made 12 October 2026; history section rewritten 14 October 2026 from the sources it lists. The name "Old Rubber Plantation", the land's rubber past and the 2005–2010 visits are Wong Fook Yee's own account. Records are taken from the pages they link to; photograph © Wong Fook Yee.