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Maratus pavonis
The carapace of Maratus pavonis has a uniform light brown area at the front, bordered by the eyes, and a white streak running back from the centre of this area towards the rear and the pedicel, the join between the cephalothorax and the abdomen. The abdomen is fringed with light brown. The pattern on the upper surface of theabdomen looks like two capital C letters facing each other, with a soft brown area between and a small 'Tasmania' like shape in the centre. The rear of the abdomen is coloured blue and green.
Found on a chicken wire type enclosure around freshly planted eucalpt tree's at a salmon farm.
Males sometimes signal to nearby females with one leg, raising it swiftly then lowering it in a jerking motion. Sometimes they splay a leg out sideways. Occasionally two or three males end up close to each other on the same stick or leaf while they display to the female, but generally they stay about 5-10cm away from each other.
Spotted on Nov 29, 2014
Submitted on Nov 30, 2014
10 Comments
Thanks for choosing this cutie for "Fact of the day" Daniele :)
Congratulations Charlie! Your spotting has been chosen for Project Noah's Fact of the Day:" Peacock spiders are intriguing and brightly colored jumping spiders (family Salticidae) endemic to Australia. Males of these tiny spiders (3.8―6.0 mm) are remarkable in their courtship behavior, where they raise their abdomen and expand abdominal flaps for nearby females. In some species males also repeatedly raise and lower their third legs during their dance-like display. New species of peacock spiders are still being discovered, with two newly described species nicknamed "Skeletorus" and "Sparklemuffin" recently making the news.
http://www.upi.com/…/Two-new-peacock-spi...
Peacock spider (Maratus pavonis) spotted in Tasmania, Australia by Project Noah user Charlie Price"
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/106...
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah
Thankyou all ..this little man was putting on quite the show...searched for a female around , but could not find her , not to say she wasn't there hiding , they are so very small.
Oh what colour and what design, just great, Charlie!
This is an awesome spotting Charlie. The signalling behavior to females with one leg extended had to be seen! Everyone make sure to have a look at the whole series :-)
Thankyou Luis , Jae , Pradeep and Mitchell ....they really are so colourful , hard to imagine , until you see one , definitely not fake :)
Beautiful series!
The first pic almost looks fake nice spotting
Beautiful! And as always great pictures, Charlie.
Beautiful spotting!!