It may not eat meat, but that doesn't make the vegetarian spider any less intimidating.
The journal Current Biology has published news of the discovery that the Bagheera kiplingi spider has a diet that consists primarily of acacia plants, making it the first of 40,000 known spider species that is believed to be an herbivore.
"This is the only spider we know that deliberately goes after plants," Villanova University Professor Robert Curry, one of the study's authors, told the BBC.
Found primarily in Central America and Mexico, the jumping spider thrives in tropical climates. It has also apparently evolved to take advantage of a symbiotic relationship between acacia plants and ants.
The ants that live on acacia plants ward off invaders -- the plant has no other natural defenses -- and in exchange, they get to eat the tips of the plant, known as Beltian bodies, which are filled with protein.
The spider waits for the ants to move away from the tips of a plant, then grabs a Beltian body before jumping away to safety. Curry's research
team discovered that most of the spiders' diet consists of the leaf tips supplemented by ant larvae -- the inverse ratio of meat-and-veggies in most standard
spider diets.
In addition to being vegetarians, the males also help care
for the eggs and the young -- which is also anathema in the spider
world. If there was ever a cuddly, sensitive spider, this is probably
the one.
Curry hopes to discover whether there is a correlation between diet
and the behavior of the male spiders. So that's something to keep your
eyes on.
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