Meliponophagy: New Records Involving Native and Exotic Jumping Spiders (Araneae, Salticidae) Preying Upon Stingless Bees (Apidae, Meliponini) in the Afrotropical Realm

Abstract

Stingless bees (Apidae, tribe Meliponini) play a crucial role as pollinators in tropical ecosystems, including across the Afrotropical realm. However, the ecology of these bees, particularly the predation pressure they face from various natural enemies, remains underexplored. Here, we document opportunistic predation events of Hypotrigona and Liotrigona species by both native (Menemerus bivittatus) and exotic (Plexippus petersi) jumping spiders (Salticidae). Across Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar, jumping spiders were observed ambushing foragers at nest entrances and successfully capturing prey, with repeated instances recorded over multiple days. This phenomenon, which we term meliponophagy, has received very little attention to date and our observations provide the first evidence of jumping spiders preying upon Liotrigona species in the Afrotropical realm, adding new records to the limited literature on these rarely documented but ecologically relevant interactions.