Peacock Spider

Quick Take

• These tiny spiders see colors humans can't, and it changes how they hunt.
• Courtship is a high-stakes performance, and one wrong move can end badly for the male.
• Seven new species surfaced in a single year. Who found them, and what do they look like?
• One species once filed under this group turned out not to belong at all.

The name “peacock spider” refers to several species of Australian jumping spiders with elaborate mating dances. They are not poisonous, only mildly venomous, and males are known for their brightly colored, rainbow-hued bodies and ability to dance during their courtship rituals. They can jump about 3.9 inches (10 centimeters), or 40 times as far as their bodies are long. They are not known to bite humans. They have a lifespan of approximately one year.

6 Incredible Peacock Spider Facts

• Peacock spiders can jump as far as 40 times the length of their own bodies.
• Peacock spiders can see a wide range of colors, including UV.
• Their intricate mating ritual includes dancing while manipulating their abdominal flaps.
• They come in a rainbow of colors.
• They get their name because the males are brightly colored and do a mating dance similar to that of a peacock.
• Females usually mate only once in their lifetime.

Species, Types, and Scientific Names

There are 118 known species of Peacock spider, seven of which were only discovered in 2020. The first ones were described in 1874. These were Maratus volans and Maratus speciosus. In 2020, researcher Joseph Schubert found Maratus azureus, Maratus constellatus, Maratus inaquosus, Maratus laurenae, Maratus noggerup, Maratus suae, and Maratus volpei. All of the known Maratus species are Australian; Maratus furvus, a species from China once placed in the genus, was moved to the genus Euochin in 2023.

Types of Peacock Spiders

• Unusual Peacock Spider: The Maratus anomalus can be found in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia.
• Sparklemuffin: The Maratus jactatus is a jumping spider, and its scientific name comes from a Latin word meaning “rocking,” which describes its mating rituals. They can be found in the Wondul Range National Park in southern Queensland, Australia. They are one of the smaller Peacock Spiders.
• Maratus nigromaculatus: The Maratus nigromaculatus can also be found in Queensland, Australia, and it gets its Latin name from its black spots.
• Common Peacock Spider: The Maratus pavonis can be seen in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, and “pavonis” means “peacock” in Latin.
• Skeletorus: The Maratus sceletus is named for its resemblance to a skeleton. Males are mostly black with white stripes. These “skeletors” are found only in the Wondul Range National Park.
• Coastal Peacock Spider: The Maratus speciosus is found on the coasts of Western Australia around sand dunes. As with all these types of spiders, they incorporate dance into their mating rituals. This particular species exposes orange hairs during its dance. These are tiny spiders, measuring only about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) long.

Appearance

In most Peacock spider species, the male has a brightly colored abdomen and elongated black third legs. The abdomen on the males has a very flexible pedicel, which is the narrow stalk that joins a spider’s abdomen to its cephalothorax, the fused head and thorax of a spider. Both the longer third legs and the flexible abdomen are used during the mating dances. The colors found on the abdomen are also iridescent. However, some of the males are not brightly colored and only have iridescence. The females are typically smaller and brown or gray.

Habitat

These unique spiders are found across the entire southern half of the Australian continent. They live across a wide range of habitats, and because of their hunting habits, many species roam over long distances and different regions. They can be found in grasslands, coastal dunes, scrub forests, and desert areas, with some species being more specialized than others and living only on certain mountain tops or under the leaf debris of certain plants.

Diet

Unlike most other spiders, Peacock spiders do not build webs. Their diets consist almost entirely of insects and other spiders. They have excellent vision, allowing them to easily locate prey, which they run after and jump on. They hunt during the day, unlike many other spider species. They can see the full color spectrum, including ultraviolet light, which makes them excellent hunters. They are not picky eaters and will eat almost any insects or other spiders they can catch, sometimes even prey that is larger than they are. Occasionally, the females will eat the males.