''Bagheera kiplingi'' is a species of jumping spider found in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, including

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, and

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. It is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus '' Bagheera'', which includes three other species, including '' B. prosper''.Platnick, Norman I. (2009)
The world spider catalog
version 10.0. American Museum of Natural History. ''B. kiplingi'' is notable for its peculiar diet, which is mostly herbivorous. No other known species of omnivorous

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

has such a markedly herbivorous diet.Milius, Susan (11 August 2008):
Vegetarian spider
. '' Science News'
Vol. 174 No. 5
Meehan, Christopher J.; , Eric J.; , Robert L. (21 August 2008)
Exploitation of the Pseudomyrmex–Acacia mutualism by a predominantly vegetarian jumping spider (Bagheera kiplingi)
The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting.

Taxonomy

The genus name is derived from Bagheera, the

black panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

from

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

's '' The Jungle Book'', with the species name honoring Kipling himself. Other salticid genera with names of Kipling's characters are '' Akela'', '' Messua'', and '' Nagaina''. All four were named by George and Elizabeth Peckham in 1896. Only the male was described in 1896; the female was first described 100 years later by Wayne Maddison. Maddison, Wayne P. (1996):
''Pelegrina franganillo'' and other jumping spiders formerly placed in the genus ''Metaphidippus'' (Araneae: Salticidae)
''Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv.'' 154: 215-368
Full Version

Description

''Bagheera kiplingi'' is a colorful,

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

species. The male has amber legs, a dark

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

that is greenish in the upper region near the front, and a slender reddish

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

with green transversal lines. The female's amber front legs are sturdier than the other, slender legs, which are light yellow. It has a reddish-brown cephalothorax with the top region near the front black. The female's rather large abdomen is light brown with dark brown and greenish markings.

Diet

''Bagheera kiplingi'' inhabits Mimosoideae trees, "acacias" in the genus ''

Vachellia ''Vachellia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, commonly known as thorn trees or acacias. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Its species were considered members of genus '' Acacia'' until 2009. ''Vachellia'' ...

'' in particular, where it consumes specialized

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

- and fat-rich nubs called Beltian bodies. The nubs form at the leaf tips of the acacia as part of a

symbiotic Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...

relationship with certain species of

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s. The spiders actively avoid the ants that attempt to guard the Beltian bodies (their food source) against intruders. Although the Beltian bodies account for over 90% of ''B. kiplingi'' diet, the spiders also consume

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

and occasionally steal ant

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e from passing worker ants for food. Sometimes, they cannibalize conspecifics, especially during the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

. Despite their occasional acts of predation, the spiders' tissues have been found to exhibit

isotopic signature An isotopic signature (also isotopic fingerprint) is a ratio of non-radiogenic ' stable isotopes', stable radiogenic isotopes, or unstable radioactive isotopes of particular elements in an investigated material. The ratios of isotopes in a sample ...

s typical of herbivorous animals, implying that most of their food comes from plants. The mechanism by which they process, ingest, and metabolize the Beltian bodies is still unresearched. The vast majority of spiders liquefy their prey using digestive enzymes before sucking it in. The degree of herbivory varies depending on environment. In Mexico, ''B. kiplingi'' inhabit more than 50% of '' Vachellia collinsii'' trees and feed almost exclusively on an herbivorous diet. In Costa Rica, the ''B. kiplingi'' population inhabit less than 5% of acacia trees and their diet is less herbivorous. Although this species is mostly territorial and forages solitarily, populations of several hundred specimens have been found on individual acacias in Mexico, with more than twice as many females as males. ''B. kiplingi'' appears to breed throughout the year. Observations of adult females guarding hatchlings and clutches suggest that the species is quasisocial.

References

External links

* * * Proszynski, Jerzy (2001)
''Bagheera kiplingi''
''Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library''. Includes links to color photos and drawings.
'Veggie' spider shuns meat diet
BBC News (video of the spider)
Meehan et al. Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant–plant mutualism
{{Taxonbar, from=Q132195 Salticidae Spiders of Mexico Spiders of Central America Spiders described in 1896 Herbivorous arthropods Endemic fauna of Costa Rica Endemic fauna of Guatemala