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 and class are mapped out in the stories, contributing to "an imagining of Englishness as a site of power and racial superiority." Nyman suggested that "The Jungle Book"'s monkeys and snakes represent "colonial animals" and "racialized Others" within the Indian jungle, whereas the White Seal promotes "'truly English' identities in the nationalist allegory" of that story. Swati Singh, in his "Secret History of the Jungle Book", notes that the tone is like that of Indian folklore, fable-like, and that critics have speculated that the Kipling may have heard similar stories from his Hindu bearer and his Portuguese "ayah" (nanny) during