Peacock Spiders – All You Need to Know

The above Image of Peacock Spider taken by Jean and Fred is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The Peacock spider is a set of spiders with fascinating features and characteristics. You will get to know so many interesting things peculiar to the Peacock Spider. Maratus is a Spider genus of the family Salticidae which are jumping spiders. These spiders are commonly referred to as Peacock Spiders due to the males’ colorful and usually iridescent patterns on the upper surface of the abdomen often enhanced with lateral flaps or bristles, which they usually display during courtship.

Females lack these bright colors, being cryptic in appearance. In the least one species, Maratus vespertilio, the expansion of the flaps also occurs during ritualized contests between males. The male display and courtship dance are complex, involving visual and vibratory signals.

The Australian jumping spiders which are also the Peacock Spider may be small, but they are also the most spectacular, colorful, and high-energy spiders in the world. The greatest attribute of the Peacock Spider is its advanced eyes. Spiders have eight, occasionally six eyes but they are generally quite simple organs, specks of black or silver that can detect light and dark, shadow and movement, and some fairly rudimentary blurry images, even at low light levels.

The two central front eyes of the Peacock Spiders are much more advanced, it’s large, fronted by spherical lenses, with an internal focusing mechanism and complex four-layered retina. This means that a Peacock Spider can see fine detail, in color and at different distances. Clear vision evolved as a predatory weapon, Peacock Spider can see its prey from meters away, creep up, and then pounce from a distance of over 20 times its body length to deliver an instant fatal bite.

Are Peacock Spiders Poisonous?

Like many arachnids, Peacock Spiders are venomous but they are completely harmless to humans. Their little jaws are so tiny that they couldn’t even puncture our skin. Humans are safe but the crickets and other spiders are not. Like all jumping spiders, the Peacock Spiders don’t build webs, they stalk their prey like lions. When the time comes, they pounce and can take down prey three or four times their size.

Peacock spiders hunt prey smaller than themselves in the daytime, usually leaping upwards, or mostly upwards or sideways, with the aid of the third pair of powerful legs. They spot their targets with powerful eyesight, capable of magnifying the images up to 4 times. They have very small fangs which they use to deliver venom. The venom is obviously effective against their particular prey, subduing or killing it, allowing them to feed by dissolving the prey with digestive enzymes.

They do not bite humans except by accident, and their venom does not seem to cause harm, perhaps because they don’t deliver enough of it to constitute an effective dose. It does not appear to have the properties of spider venoms that are dangerous to humans, like those of the Redblack spider or the spiders in the group containing the Sydney Funnel-web Spider.

Where are the Peacock Spiders found?

Peacock Spiders are widespread across the southern half of Australia and they live in a diverse range of habitats, from sand dunes on the temperate coasts to grassland in the semi-arid regions. Occasionally the species Maratus furvus from China is also included. However, its inclusion in the genus Maratus is more of a historic artifact. It is a species that is poorly described and nothing in that description indicates that it is a Peacock Spider.

Some species are known from tropical areas, the majority is restricted to the southern half of the continent. Most species live in the temperate or subtropical southwest or southeast of the continent. Some species prefer coastal areas, even beaches, others can be found on mountain tops, swamps, or even desert-like environments. Most native habitat is suitable for Peacock Spiders but whether you come across them depends on how hard you search and luck. Most species can be found on the ground or on small twigs strewn on the ground.

The best way of finding them is simply to slowly walk along a path and carefully observe what moves. Remember to tread carefully when you look for them, and if you want to be sure not to kill any accidentally, it is probably the best way to stay on the path. During summer, the female will look after their brood, inside a silken chamber (egg sac) they attach to debris. The spiders in this egg sac don’t move when you approach and together with their brood will almost certainly be killed if you step on them. The best time to find them is in the morning or afternoon. During midday, they usually hide.

Are the Peacock Spiders friendly?

Like other spiders, Peacock Spiders possess venom and they use it to kill their prey, small flies, moths, and other insects. For humans they are completely harmless, they are friendly to humans and dangerous to their prey.

What do the Peacock Spiders need to survive?

Peacock Spiders do not spin a web, instead, they are daily hunters of small insects. Their diet consists of flies, moths, winged ants, and grasshoppers, as well as any small insects they can capture. Females may also eat males if they are unimpressed by the males’ dances. They use their amazing vision to see their prey from yards away and pounce from long distances to deliver a fatal bite. This ability to jump large distances also helps to avoid predators, which include bigger spiders. They are mostly solitary creatures until the mating season when males aggressively court females. Peacock Spiders need this daily hunting for food to survive.

In addition, Peacock Spiders only communicate during mating season. Males make vibrations with their hind legs, which are then picked up by sensory systems in female’s legs. Females release chemical pheromones from their abdomens which produce drag-lines that can be picked up by chemoreceptors in the males. Peacock Spiders’ eyes are powerful enough to perceive the males’ bright colors in fine detail over long distances. The Peacock spider needs these activities to survive.

How far can Peacocks Spiders jump?

Peacock Spiders can’t fly, though they can leap up to 40 times their body length, which comes in handy for pouncing on baby crickets and other prey. Their envelope-shaped web served as shelter rather than snares. Females stay tucked inside with their eggs, barely eating or drinking until their young grow old enough to feed.

Because they make dangerous leaps does not mean they have a death wish. Peacock Spiders spin a quick line of silk that they use as a drag-line. The tension in the silk line allows the spiders to adjust their body for a smooth landing. It also provides direction and allows the spiders to stabilize their landing in addition to acting as a sort of safety net if they need to stop mid-jump.

How do you identify Peacock Spiders?

The Peacock spider grows up to a maximum length of 0.5cm for females and 0.4cm for males. The males’ abdomen is very colorful, which is why these arachnids have been named after the peacock. He has two red symmetrical crescents that surround a central red spot on a blue background. This pattern extends unto short flaps, which fold away when they are not being used. Females are dull brown or grey in color and have a foliate pattern on their abdomen.

Peacock Spiders are a unique group of tiny, colorful, and dancing spiders native to Australia. They are roughly between 2.5 and 6 millimeters, depending on the species. Adult male Peacock Spiders are usually colorful, while female and juvenile Peacock Spiders are usually dull and brown or grey.

Like peacocks, the mature male Peacock Spiders display their vibrant colors in elegant courtship displays to impress females. They often elevate and wave their third pair of legs and lift their brilliantly colored abdomens, like dancing. Up until 2011, they were only seven known species of them. But since then, the rate of scientific discovery has skyrocketed with upwards of 80 species being discovered in the last decade.

Where can you see Peacock Spiders?

These spiders are common in bushland areas and domestic gardens, but they are very hard to spot due to their size. They are free-ranging throughout low shrubs and leaf litter and like to prey on the small insects that they find in these habits. A Peacock Spider will construct a silken retreat when molting or guarding egg sacs.

How is the mating dance of the Peacock Spider?

In order to attract a mate, the male Peacock Spider waves his third leg, raises and expands his abdomen in a miniature mating dance. Just like a peacock shaking his tail feathers.

What does Peacock Spider eat?

They are good eaters, they eat almost everything that is small enough. Flies, moths, grasshoppers, winged ants, wasps are what they probably feed on most. It is often surprising to see what size prey they tackle, not unusual to see them feeding on arthropods larger than the spider. Peacock Spiders make use of their keen eyesight, superior color vision, and venomous fangs to prey on various insects, as well as other spiders, sneaking up behind unknowing victims and pouncing upon them.

Peacock Spiders eat insects, especially crickets and other spiders. They are classified as jumping spiders, meaning they do not spin webs to catch their prey. Instead, they are fierce hunters who leap forward to land on their prey and subdue them. Peacock Spiders are such good hunters that they can take down a cricket many times their own size. They are diurnal cursorial hunters feeding primarily on insects and other spiders.

Why does the Peacock Spider dance?

The male Peacock Spider must dance for his life. In order to attract a female and avoid being eaten, he performs an intricate dance using a brilliantly colored fan attached to his abdomen. If the female approves the dance, by being attracted to it, he is allowed to mate. If not, he becomes her next meal.

Male spiders use complex movement, vibrations, and color to win the ladies over. The animal dances and lifts up its tail-flap, which, once unfurled, resembles an abstract Indian blanket of intense color. The male Peacock Spider hops about, lifts up its legs alternately like an air traffic controller, gesturing in different ways. It has large fury mouthparts which make it look like it’s smiling, or at least mildly amused at this outrageous act. The males of the Peacock Spiders from different species with this group of spiders put on remarkable mating displays to win over mates of the opposite gender.

Six surprising facts about the Peacock Spiders are listed below –

• They are only found in Australia: Peacock Spiders are usually only found on the southern half of mainland Australia, making them a rare sighting.

• They are about as small as a grain of rice: These Peacock Spiders are incredibly tiny. They are only around 2.5-5mm in length.

• There are a wide variety of Peacock Spiders: There are many types of Peacock Spider. Each type spiders has a different pattern or body shape. Many have only recently been discovered, and there may be many more left to be discovered.

• The female may eat the male: The male Peacock Spider perform a mating ritual with their colorful bodies to persuade females to mate with them. If, however, the female rejects the male’s offer, she may end up eating him.

• Some have adorable nicknames: Some Peacock Spiders have been given nicknames according to what they look like. For example, skeletorus looks like a skeleton, Elephans looks like an elephant shape in his tail, and you have known what Sparklemuffin looks like, just as the name sounds.

• They dance like no one is watching: Part of their mating ritual includes dancing back and forth. In addition to fanning out their colorful bodies, male Peacock Spiders also stick up their legs and dance for the female they are trying to impress.

How the “Peacock” Spiders came to be known?

When spiders come to mind, you probably picture creepy crawlers like black widows and haunted houses strewn with filmy cobwebs. However, the spider world is far more diverse, and perhaps far cuter, than you probably think. Peacock Spiders, known for their elaborate mating dances and fantastically colored abdomens, is one such species. Roughly the sizes of fingernails, Peacock Spiders are strikingly and absolutely adorable.

Peacock Spiders are tiny jumping spiders that range in size from two to six millimeters. While female Peacock Spiders come in plain shades of mottled brown or beige, male spiders are much more exotic. Male spiders are equipped with glittering scales and lateral abdominal flaps that they use to woo females in complex mating dances. In these dances, the males scuttle about, raising their abdomens up and down, waving their third legs, and extending their lateral flaps. Besides demonstrating showy colors and movements, the males’ abdominal movements also generate simple vibrations. All of this is similar to how the male Peacock Spider performs when recruiting a mate, giving these unique spiders their name.

Where do Peacock Spiders live?

Peacock Spiders live extremely in the southern half of Australia and have been found in various habitats, from grassland and sand dunes to shrubs. The spiders are generally most active around breeding season with mature males emerging from August to December when it is spring in the southern hemisphere. Mature females emerge a little later, though they also retreat in December to lay and guard their egg sacs.

How do Peacock Spiders reproduce? And what about their offspring?

The mating season for Peacock Spiders occurs during the Australian spring from August to December. Males reach sexual maturity earlier than females and begin the mating ritual by perching atop a high surface and waving their hind legs. He produces vibrations when he spots a female to get her attention. Once she is facing him, he begins a mating dance by unfolding a flat section of his abdomen, which fans out. He alternates displaying this flat section and the hind leg for up to 50 mins or until the female makes a decision.

Males are very aggressive and may make multiple attempts to win over a female. They have been known to pursue pregnant or aloof females, as well as females of other species. A female can deter a male by lifting her abdomen to shoe her disinterest or even by eating the male.

How many species are there of Peacock Spiders?

There are over 40 known species of Maratus, most of which live in Southern Australia and one of which resides in China. Some species traverse large ranges while others are restricted to one geographic region. Most species grow up to 0.19 inches but they differ in their colors and patterns, which influences the choreography of their dances.

What about the conservation status of the Peacock Spider?

All species of genus Maratus have not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Arachnologists argue that the biggest threat to these creatures is habitat destruction by controlled burns and wildfires.

What is the physical description of Peacock Spiders?

Peacock Spiders are small spiders averaging 4 millimeters in length. The males are known for their unique coloration which has earned them the name Peacock Spider. Colors vary from red, orange, white, cream, and blue, each having different textures and shapes on them. The diverse coloration of the male Peacock Spider is due to microscopic scales, or modified hairs, that cover its body.

Testing has shown that the scales that are colored white, cream, and red typically have elaborate shapes with numerous spines and pigmentation. The red bands on Maratus species consist of a dense array of scales that vary in color from scarlet-red to cream-yellow. Adjacent scales consist of blues, purples, or are colorless. Females lack this vibrant coloring and are instead a plain brown color.

How do Peacock Spiders communicate?

Communication only occurs between males and females at the time of mating and resonates through vibrations or release of air-borne chemical pheromones. Maratus males use their abdomens and their third pair of legs to produce vibrations through the ground. Vibrations can then be detected by the female through sensory systems in their legs. Chemical pheromones produced in the female’s abdomen are used to produce silk drag-lines as they move about their environment.

Once the male comes in contact with these silk lines, the pheromones can be detected by chemoreceptors, located on the legs. This triggers male courtship in the absence of their normal visual cues. This method of communication is more commonly used by males to determine if the female is ready to mate.

Maratus spiders have eight eyes that aid in the ability to perceive motion and depth. Their eyes are equipped with telephoto lenses and tiered retinas containing UV-sensitive photoreceptors which they use to perceive motion. Their tiered retinas allow for their eyes to perceive colors in a way that is more similar to the way that birds perceive color.

What is the behavior and eco-system role of Peacock Spiders?

The only recorded information about interactive behaviors between Maratus and other spiders is for mating purposes. Otherwise, the genus is considered solitary. The ecosystem roles that Maratus spiders provide are similar to the roles that all spiders provide in that they help regulate insect populations through consumption.

What is the lifespan and predation of Peacock Spiders?

Peacock spiders’ lifespan in captivity is unknown due to little research. Observations show that Peacock Spiders have been affected by habitat destruction in Australia, which might be a limiting factor in their lifespan. Peacock Spiders are prey to spiders and other carnivorous insects that are bigger in size. Due to their small stature, they have adapted the ability to jump up to 40 times their body length to avoid predation.

In addition, Peacock Spiders were first discovered in the 1800’s but they went virtually unstudied after the 1950’s. They have slowly gained popularity, thanks to their unique colonization and dances. This popularity is evident within some of the newer species, names such as skeletons, Sparklemuffin, and Elephants, all of which are based on the patterns on their abdomens.

Let’s know more about the Jumping Spiders which the Peacock Spider falls under.

What are the types of Peacock Spiders?

There are simply too many hybrids and variants when it comes to Jumping Spiders, but you will get to know some of them here, which can also be kept as pets.

• Phidippux Audax (Bold Jumping Spider): The Phidippux Audax, also known as the bold Jumping Spiders got its name due to the fact that they have a bold personality where they are not introverts that will shun away.

Most of the bold jumping spiders are mostly covered in black, with their distinctive front two chelicerae (fangs) usually coated in a bright metallic green or blue. These species are a common type of jumping spider species in North America or in open areas as they like to actively seek out their prey instead of spinning webs and playing the waiting game.

• Phidippux Regius (Regal Jumping Spider): The Regal Jumping Spider is considered to be a large species of jumping spider which can be found in eastern North America, else in open fields or even trees and walls of buildings. The males can be easily differentiated from the females especially as they often come in a black base with a unique pattern of white spots and stripes, whereas for the females, they would carry a somewhat similar pattern but their color ranges from grey shades to vivid oranges. Their diet ranges from small insects to small crickets. The regal jumping spider will spin silken nests and sleep in them when night falls and the females will lay their eggs under tree barks or secluded areas such as barns.

• Platycryptus Undatus (Tan Jumping Spider): Platycryptus Undatus also known as the tan jumping spider, can be found in Canada and US, or even in tree barks and tight crevices.

It is primarily covered in tan color, that’s probably how it got its name. They have a prominent pattern that comes in orange on their abdomen and thorax. They feed on smaller insects, earthworms, and small crickets. They can be typically scooped up in your palms and curiously wander around. Be sure not to pinch or squeeze it, as you will be prone to their defensive bite.

• Salticus Scenicus (Zebra Jumping Spider): The zebra jumping spider, quite self-explanatory how it got its nickname from based on the zebra-liked stripes all over its thorax and abdomen. They can be found all across Britain, Europe and North America.

These species of Jumping Spiders have urbanized themselves and can be also found in human settlements or indoors at times. The zebra jumping spider, like most other Jumping Spiders, has been known to prey on smaller spiders and insects. Their hunting behavior has been described to be quiet cat-like, gauging the distance and with the right amount of strength, pouncing onto their prey as accurately as possible.

• Chrysilla Lauta (Elegant Golden Jumping Spider): The elegant golden jumping spider, which can be found mainly in rain forests from China, Vietnam, Burma, Myanmar, and Singapore. Coming in shades of red, blue and yellow especially around its thorax, majority of its body is coated with a golden bronze overall. This jumper’s diet mainly consists of wingless fruit flies, smaller insects and smaller spiders.

• Cosmophasis Umbratica (Shiny Jumping Spider): The cosmophasis umbratica got its nickname also from its physical features where they are able to reflect UV from almost all of its body parts during UV interaction and can also display extreme dimorphism when being exposed to UV lights. This is a sign of sexual signaling and this rare phenomenon occurs with butterflies as well.

This species of jumping spider can be found in India and Sumatra, sometimes even on plants that are exposed to direct sunlight in the late mornings and early afternoons where hot direct sunlight is at its peak. This UV-sensitive Jumping Spiders diet revolves around smaller insects like ants and flies.

• Hyllus Diardi (Heavy Jumper): The Hyllus Diardi is also known as heavy jumper gained it’s reputable name through how it accurately jumps onto its prey, the impact after it lands is somewhat heavy, hence gaining the undisputable nickname; the heavy jumper.

This spider is mostly covered in thick white fur and can be found in mangrove areas. The heavy jumper has been reportedly sighted in countries such as Thailand and Singapore, where its diet mainly consists of flies and crickets which you can get from local pet stores. They are known to be the largest species of the jumping spider and their trademark would have to be that precision when they hunt for their prey.

• Portia Labiata (White-Moustached Jumping Spider): This is only found in Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Java, Sumatra, Philippines and others. The Portia Labiata is a medium-sized jumping spider that has a distinctive two fangs coated in sparse white hair, which is most probably how it got its nickname the white-moustached jumping spider. Their diet comprises of fellow webbed spiders, Jumping Spiders and insects.

• How to catch the Peacock Spider?

Jumping Spiders which a Peacock Spider falls under are the most readily available everywhere. For starters, if there are nearby parks or gardens around you, that would be a good place to begin your search. In order to hunt for a Peacock Spider, you have to know how it moves. Jumping Spiders in general hunt their prey by foot, hence, the chances of you locating one jumping from plant to plant or through grasses would be high.

If you are out roaming in the park, chances are you may also encounter other insects and smaller creatures. It is always good to carry a sturdy stick or a wood branch to strike on bushes or clusters of leaves as it will alarm the jumping spider who is hiding in it and cause them to jump out into the open. In order to catch one, you have to be able to tell the difference and recognize a jumping spider beforehand. Jumping Spiders ranges from as small as 1mm 25mm (0.1cm to 2.5cm), approximately a third of a section of a finger biggest.

Once you are able to identify one, bring along a small container or a bottle that has been washed thoroughly and completely dried to temporarily house them while transiting back to your house. While coaxing a Jumping Spider into your vial or container, be patient as it requires a certain amount of effort to do so as they are small and can be tricky to capture. Try to use twigs, bottle caps, or container lids to guide it in, and avoid using your hands and fingers if possible. Even though there have been no records that Jumping Spiders have caused death, they can still bite and it is still a mystery whether their venoms are indeed poisonous or not.