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Vegetarian Spider Described
Smivs writes with word on a spider, Bagheera kiplingi, that dines almost exclusively on plants. "The recently described species of jumping spider, discovered by researchers from Villanova and Brandeis Universities, dines on the protein rich tips of acacias, the thorny shrubs found in much of Central America. ... The species of acacia... favored by the Bagheera kiplingi has protein-rich leaf tips and nutritious sap to reward its [symbiotic ant] protectors. ... The Bagheera kiplingi has essentially evolved to steal from the mouths of the ants. These agile, inquisitive jumping spiders can leap up to 50 times their own body lengths... Competition for prey in the spider world is fierce. The Bagheera kiplingi's ancestors took the reflexes evolved for hunting and adapted into a creature that uses them for ant evasion."
Plesiometa Argyra is a fairly common fly and mosquito catching spider in Costa Rica. Every day of its life it weaves a flimsy circular web to catch its prey - unless it gets stung by a Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga wasp. That’s where this spider’s life gets, well, very interesting. The wasp sting briefly paralyzes the spider and eventually turns it into a zombie.
Unfortunately, one must read about a boring vegetarian spider to find out that there exists something as mind-blowing as a zombie spider
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
Their webs are for energy production only. They are peaceful spiders. Really.
If they are vegetarians, why do they make webs?
So they can have websites?
I am anarch of all I survey.