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
The Jungle Book in the triumph of protagonists including Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal over their enemies, as well as Mowgli's. Another important theme is of law and freedom; the stories are not about animal behaviour, still less about the Darwinian struggle for survival, but about human archetypes in animal form. They teach respect for authority, obedience, and knowing one's place in society with "the law of the jungle", but the stories also illustrate the freedom to move between different worlds, such as when Mowgli moves between the jungle and the village. Critics have also noted the essential wildness and lawless energies in