Bagheera Kiplingi: First Vegetarian Spider in the World Found in Central America
- First Vegetarian Spider Bagheera Kiplingi Found in Central America.
Bagheera kiplingi is discovered to be the first vegetarian spider.
Bagheera kiplingi, a South American species, lives almost exclusively on leaf buds and is researched to be the only spider of about 40,000 species to have rejected a carnivorous diet.
Research, published in Current Biology journal shows that Bagheera kiplingi is almost exclusively herbivorous, only nibbling on a few ant larvae from time to time to break the monotony.
Otherwise it eats only Beltian bodies, the nutrient-rich growths on acacias plants – and has no need to spin a web to catch its prey.
“This is the first spider known to ‘hunt’ plants as a primary food source,” said Christopher Meehan of Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, who observed the creatures.
Meehan said, “Spiders aren’t thought to be capable of eating solid food at all.”
Normally they secrete enzymes onto their prey to digest them outside the body and then consume what’s left as a kind of soup. B kiplingi, however, eats its vegetables whole.
“I’ve done the math several times, and even the most conservative estimates point to near-total vegetarianism,” Meehan said
Meehan also considered the ratio of two carbon isotopes, C-13 and C-12.
Meehan found that the vegetarian spider and the Beltian bodies had virtually identical ratios, as is usually the case between an animal and its food.
The researchers include Christopher J. Meehan, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, Eric J. Olson, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; Matthew W. Reudink, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada; T. Kurt Kyser, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada; and Robert L. Curry, Villanova University, Villanova, PA.
