Oct 14, 2009

Spider Eats Raw Acacia

Here's a video of a vegetarian spider. That's right -- the first ever known spider (Bagheera kiplingi) that actively and willfully hunts plants almost exclusively.

Two notes about this video: 1) there is no sound, and 2) it's footage of a spider hunting plants, and that turns out not to be a very exciting activity. The plants don't try to flee and there aren't any death throes.

One nice thing, though, is that these spiders seem to be able to eat like civilized creatures. Meaning, they can eat the food raw and digest it internally, rather than having to inject their meal with enzymes to reduce it to slurpable sludge before ingesting it.

Thanks for the spider, Amber and Clair.

8 comments:

Jaden Walker said...

These little cuties are proof of why I love spiders so much! I can't wait until I finish my degree and I get to travel and discover this kind of thing :)

Great video. I hadn't seen it yet.

Anonymous said...

Jaden, just out of curiosity, what degree are you working on? And how do you know you'll get to travel around and discover stuff like that? I want to travel around too :(

Anonymous said...

The ants are like, "OMG!!! We're gonna' get eaten!!! Run!!!"

(Read with English accent)And the spider's like, "Whu? I was just wonderin' if you were gonna eat yor radishes? They're quite scrumptious, luv."

Anonymous said...

I bet this spider annoys all the other spiders by telling them they need more fiber in their diet.

Jaden Walker said...

1st anonymous- I'm about to get my masters in entomology, and I'm going to pursue my PhD. Spiders are my main area of study.

I'm already planning a trip to Brazil so I can reclassify the Avicularia genus of tarantulas (pinktoes). They're my favorite genus of any arthropod.

Tessa said...

OO how exciting, I love Avicularia!

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is beyond awesome. Going to the amazon (I presume) to look for tarantulas...

I need to find a career path that will allow me to do things like that!

1st anonymous

Matt Chan said...

Getting that close and personal with those ants for phat lewt they're specifically evolved to harvest and protect... screw "not... very exciting", this looks hardcore.