Bagheera kiplingi, a 5-6mm jumping spider found in Central America and some parts of Mexico, has just been discovered to be the first-- and only known-- predominately vegetarian spiders in the world (out of 40,000 other arachnid species). The spider eats the protein-rich tips of Acacia plants, also known as Beltian bodies.
The vegetarian spiders do face one obstacle: a particularly aggressive specie of ants live in the hollow spines of the Acacia plant act as the plants' body gaurd-- fending off the spiders that wish to dine on its Beltian bodies. "The ants protect the trees from predators, swarming to attack any invaders; and in return for acting as bodyguards, the ants get to gorge on the acacias' Beltian bodies themselves" (1). To avoid encounters with these ants, the spiders live on the old tips of the plants-- when they are hungry, they head down to the newer, fresher leaf tips, dodging ants along the way.
Then the spiders grab a Beltian body, clip it off, hold it with their pedipalps and run to the safety of the older, less desirable leaf tips to eat it.
Dr. Curry of Villanova University has recently written a paper on the Bagheera kiplingi. In discussing the possible reasons why these spiders dine on leafy greens, Dr. Curry said that "Competition in the tropics is pretty fierce so there are always advantages to doing what someone else isn't already doing... They are jumping spiders, so they don't build a web to catch food, so they have to catch their prey through pursuit. And the Beltian bodies are not moving - they are stuck - so it is a very predictable food supply."
(1) Rebecca Morelle. "Veggie Spider Shuns Meat Diet." 12 October 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8302535.stm
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