Bagheera kiplingi Bagheera kiplingi Bagheera kiplingi is a species of jumping spider found in Central America, including Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. It is the type species of the genus "Bagheera", which includes three other species, including "B. prosper". "B. kiplingi" is notable for its peculiar diet, which is mostly herbivorous. No other known species of spider has such a thoroughly herbivorous diet. The genus name is derived from Bagheera, the black panther from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book", with the species name honoring Kipling himself. Other salticid genera with names of Kipling's characters are "Akela", "Messua", and "Nagaina". All four were
Bagheera into the jungle, where his ferocity and cunning nature win him the respect of all its other inhabitants, except for the very incredibly conceited Shere Khan The Tiger. Bagheera reveals all this to Mowgli later. None but Mowgli ever learn that Bagheera once wore a collar and chain, explaining the cat's special insight concerning men. Bagheera's brief description of his imprisonment and escape is this, “I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera - the Panther - and no man's plaything, and I broke