Bagheera kiplingi

Taxobox
name = "Bagheera kiplingi"


image_caption =
image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
familia = Salticidae
subfamilia = Dendryphantinae
tribus = Dendryphantini
genus = "Bagheera"
species = "B. kiplingi"
binomial = "Bagheera kiplingi"
binomial_authority = Peckham & Peckham, 1896Platnick 2008]
range_

range_map_width = 250px

"Bagheera kiplingi" is a species of jumping spider found in Central America including Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. It is the type species of the genus "Bagheera", which includes one other species, "B. prosper". "B. kiplingi" is notable for its peculiar diet, which, unusually for a spider, can be mostly vegetarian. No other known spider has such a thoroughly vegetarian diet.Milius 2008] Meehan "et al." 2008]

Name

The genus name is derived from Bagheera, the black panther from Rudyard Kipling's 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.

Description

"Bagheera kiplingi" is a colorful species, with the two sexes looking very different. The male has amber legs, a dark cephalothorax that is greenish in the upper region near the front, and a slender reddish abdomen 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.

Only the male was described in 1896; the female was first described 100 years later by Wayne Maddison.Maddison 1996]

Diet

The spiders inhabit "Acacia" trees which have a symbiotic relationship with certain species of ants, producing specialized protein- and fat-rich nubs called Beltian bodies at their leaf tips for the ants to consume. The spiders consume these nubs, which can account for over 90% of their diet, actively avoiding the ants that attempt to guard their food source against intruders. The spiders also consume nectar, also produced by the "Acacia"s for their ant symbionts, as well as occasionally stealing ant larvae from passing worker ants for food. Especially during the dry season they also occasionally cannibalize other "B. kiplingi".

While they feed almost exclusively on a vegetarian diet in Mexico where they inhabit more than half of "Acacia collinsii" trees, populations in Costa Rica, where less than 5% of "Acacia" are populated by "B. kiplingi", do so to a lesser extent. 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 than males. "B. kiplingi" appears to breed throughout the year. Observations of adult females guarding hatchlings and clutches suggest that the species is quasisocial.

Implications for history of science

The symbiotic relationship between acacias trees and that ants that live on them had been closely studied for many decades, and had long been, literally, a textbook example of symbiosis in nature. Researchers discovered the unusual diet of "B. kiplingi" much later, a discovery attributed to the fact that non-specialists with fewer pre-conceptions about what was important in this ecology were involved in the inquiry.

Footnotes

References

*, 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.
*, Christopher J.; aut|Olson, Eric J.; aut|Curry, Robert L. (21 August 2008): [http://eco.confex.com/eco/2008/techprogram/P12401.HTM Exploitation of the Pseudomyrmex–Acacia mutualism by a predominantly vegetarian jumping spider (Bagheera kiplingi)] . The 93^rd ESA Annual Meeting.
*, Susan (30 August 2008): " [http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/35121/title/Vegetarian_spider Vegetarian spider] ". "Science News" 174: 5.
*, Norman I. (2008): [http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html The world spider catalog] , version 9.0. "American Museum of Natural History".

External links

*, Jerzy (2001). [http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/bagheer/kiplingi.htm "Bagheera kiplingi"] . "Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library". Includes links to color photos and drawings.