That darn spider I couldn't find

Before I found Frigga crocuta, this other species of (possibly) vegetarian spider, I had originally set out to study all of the known species of Bagheera, which were two when I started (Bagheera kiplingi and Bagheera prosper), and the number has recently grown to four. In 2013, I spent a week on Texas and Oklahoma collecting specimens of Bagheera prosper, which were highly abundant nearly everywhere I looked, and the males were easily identifiable with their characteristically projecting Bagheera mouthparts.

 

 

See the family resemblance?

Not surprisingly, Bagheera prosper appears to be a regular old carnivore, even though Bagheera kiplingi, considered its closest relative, is up to 90% vegetarian (you've probably heard that before...). The two other species of Bagheera, Bagheera montagua (from Guatemala) and Bagheera laselva (from Costa Rica), have only recently been described in the scientific literature, and nothing is known about their diets. B. montagua was collected from plants that might have been acacias (the main food source for B. kiplingi), and there have been some suspicions that it might be vegetarian, although the question arises that, if B. montagua and B. kiplingi are both plant eaters, did herbivorous habits form once in the ancestor of both spiders, or have these habits evolved twice? I thought that the answer might sit with Bagheera laselva, which lives in an area of Costa Rica where another species of acacia plant grows. If B. laselva turned out to be herbivorous, then it would seem likely that all of the Bagheera species originally ate plants, and then B. prosper reverted to a carnivorous diet.

As I may have mentioned in a previous note, I could not locate any specimens of B. laselva, even after several days of searching. The good news, however, is that La Selva Biological Station has to be one of the most amazing places I've every visited, and I really hope to make it back!

Here are a few photos:

 

My first meal in Costa Rica! Unlike my spiders, I'm not exactly a vegetarian...

 

These bats were all nestled on the roof of my cabin at La Selva Biological Station. Not surprisingly, none of them were there at night.The geckos were around at night, though. This one is a turnip-tailed gecko, Thecadactylus rapicauda.

 

There were also geckos during the day, like this Gonatodes albogularis, or yellow headed gecko.

 

But this was one of the only jumping spiders I found, after many hours of searching.

 

Although I also found a tiny, spider-sized frog!