Which author and poet famously wrote the line, "The female of the species is more deadly than the male"?

The story behind the answer

Rudyard Kipling wrote the famous refrain “The female of the species is more deadly than the male” in his 1911 poem “The Female of the Species.” The poem comments on the fierce, single-minded protectiveness and determination of females across nature and human society. Kipling, a British writer best known for The Jungle Book and the first English-language Nobel laureate in Literature (1907), often explored themes of empire, nature, and character under pressure.

A quick way to remember it: think “species” → animals → The Jungle Book → Kipling. Also, the line’s modern, aphoristic snap doesn’t sound like Shakespeare or Wordsworth, and Poe’s gothic tone is quite different—another clue that it’s Kipling’s hard-edged, memorable quip.