Scientists Discover Rare Vegetarian Spider

October 13, 2009 9:17 a.m. EST

Philadelphia, PA (AHN) - American scientists have discovers a spider that feeds almost exclusively on plant food. The findings are significant because of the known approximately 40,000 species of spiders in the world, all were thought to be strict predators.

The researchers with Villanova University and Brandeis University, said the spider, the Bagheera kiplingi, lives throughout Central America and southern Mexico.

The spider is found in several species of acacia shrubs that are guarded by ants. The spiders are able to eat the nectar of the plant and its leaf tips through an act of "active avoidance" of the ants, the researchers said in a statement.

Although roughly 90 percent of the food eaten by the spiders observed in Mexico was derived from plants, these spiders also supplemented their diets with animal food, including ant larvae.

The study appears in the Oct. 13 issue of Current Biology.