What makes Peacock Spiders special?

While their extraordinary display of color and pattern is unique, they are loved for more than just their colorful bodies. Peacock Spiders are usually only found in the southern half of mainland Australia, making them a rare sighting. These spiders are incredibly tiny. They are only around 2.5-5mm in length. You may see Peacock Spiders as nightmare fuel, but spiders can be pretty too. Other than the creepy crawlies that look straight out of a horror movie, spiders come in many shapes and forms. The Peacock Spider is very special and unique, it stands out for its brilliant colors and mating habits similar to its winged namesake.

Here are the things that make the Peacock Spider special:

• Peacock Spiders have an elaborate mating ritual: To begin mating, males would flare out the colored flaps that cover their abdomen, much like a peacock display. This species got its name from its similarity with the peacock. Afterward, the male will clap his front legs together, rotating his third set of legs and slowly approaching the female. This behavior comes out as a dance that makes do to attract the females.

• Peacock Spiders have many relatives: While Peacock Spiders may be unique, they are related to 6000 different species of jumping spiders. Together, they account for an estimated 13% of all spider species in the entire world. This family stands out for having better vision compared to other spider species.

• Male Peacock Spiders have to dance for their lives during mating season: Male Peacock Spiders may fail to woo their prospective mates and usually suffer a tragic example of tough love. Usually, female Peacock Spiders that don\’t get impressed by a male\’s dance would attack. In some cases, they could just reject the male by leaving, but female Peacock Spiders could also kill and eat the male. Sometimes, the male spider manages to escape, running for his life from the suddenly hostile female.

• Females release pheromones when they are ready to date: Instead of mating calls, a female Peacock spider releases pheromones through spinning lines of silk. Carried by the wind, these pheromones let males know about the fertile female\’s presence. After mating, a female Peacock Spider also releases a different set of pheromones that tells males that she is not available anymore.

• Peacock spiders don\’t make a web to catch prey: While these spiders still produce silk, they don\’t weave webs to catch their prey in the traditional sense. Instead, Peacock Spiders wait until their prey gets close enough to pounce on them. Just like their fellow jumping spiders, the Peacock Spider can travel up to 200 mm away with a single jump. It might not seem like much to us humans, but to tiny animals like insects and spiders, it allows them to cover great distances. Together with their amazing sense of sight, the Peacock Spider’s ability to jump great distances makes them very effective predators.

• Peacock Spiders have a varied diet when it comes to their prey: The Peacock spider\’s diet mainly consists of smaller insects, such as crickets and grasshoppers among other species. They are also known to attack other spiders, whether members of their own species or others.

• Two subspecies of Peacock Spiders have interesting names: First, we have the Sparklemuffin, named for the jewel-like brightness of the colored patterns on its back, and its drunken mating dance. Another uniquely named subspecies is the Skeletorus, named for the skeleton-liked pattern on its body and the He-man villain Skeleton.

• Their scales also have a natural wonder of their own: After studying how the Peacock Spider’s pattern can become so bright, scientists discovered a unique scientific phenomenon. To display its colorful lights, the spider\’s scale from nanoscopic lenses is made out of naturally formed carbon nanotubes. Modern science can barely make those in any real quantity, but these spiders simply include them in the scales. The nanoscopic lenses they make, in turn, capture up to 99.97% of all light falling on the spiders. This helps to give a proper explanation of the brilliance of the spider\’s colors.

• They have a very good sense of hearing: Peacock Spiders don\’t actually have ears or eardrums, but they still have excellent hearing. Using tiny hairs on their legs and bodies, they catch the vibrations in the air that makeup sounds and noises. Their hearing has such precision they can catch sound from up to 3 meters away.

• In theory, you can train a Peacock Spider: It has been proven that you can train a Peacock Spider easily and it adjusts to the training. Researchers at the University of Manchester managed to train a regal jumping spider, one of the Peacock Spider\’s close relatives. The Peacock spider later learned how to jump on command.

In addition, also know that Peacock Spiders measure only 5 mm in length at most. They can be mostly found along Australia’s south coast. These Peacock Spiders pose no threat to humans, despite their venom, as their tiny jaws can\’t break human skin. The females have a uniform brown color. Male Peacock Spiders also have largely brown coloring, but also have colorful patterns on their backs. These characteristics have made the Peacock Spider very special and unique.