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Maratus pavonis
This very attractive jumping spider was only about 6 mm long. It looked like two blobs of yellowish-orange but a closer look revealed a spider with a black cepahalothorax with an ochre colored anterior part and three thin white lines, one in the middle and two laterally placed. The abdomen had two bright orange "c"-shaped patterns facing each other with a central orange patch. All this on a background of very pale teal. The third pair of legs seemed to have dense white setae on the tarsi. The four eyes in the front were a deep green. The palps were white.
Spotted on black wattle in a reserve.
This was an exciting find for me - an absolutely gorgeous, very active little spider. You would need appropriate photographic equipment to capture its beauty- something I did not have.
The pattern seen on the abdomen is on a flap over the abdomen. If the female shows interest in the males initial attempts to attract her ( leg waving), he would then lift his abdomen unfolding the flaps to display the pattern, like a peacock !
Family: Salticidea
11 Comments
awesome....
Awesome find Leuba ...my favorite spiders .. could watch them for hours. :)
I only found out about jumping spiders when I joined PN, now totally smitten. They are such cheeky characters ... this is a great one Leuba
...well if that's your excuse...
Thanks everyone. I must admit I had not heard of this jumper before now. Now I'll be on the look-out for him. He jumped off the plant before I could call out to Mark.
They are so beautiful, Leuba. Great find, congrats.
What a great find, Leuba
Stunning little spider! Great spotting, Leuba.
Great jumper Leuba!
Now that's really cute! Nice find.
Wow. Gorgeous. Look at the colors. Bravo Leuba