The Peacock Spider

The Peacock Spider is a jumping spider. Of course, it is probably the most awesome jumping spider in the world. (And it is found only in Australia). Now, you must be wondering what a peacock spider is, right? If you think about it, it's name suggests what it is. And it is obviously a jumping spider, but what it can do is not done by any other spider or any other creature but the peacock itself. Peacock spiders obviously need to find a mate and the only way jumping spiders get mates is to try to attract their attention. The way male jumping spiders get a females attention is by taking their front legs and waving them around. They also vibrate their bodies which the females pick up on. When a male runs into another male, they will pretty much do what rams or sheep do; butt their faces into each other with their legs raised to see who is bigger. They do this a few times, and then they kind of fight a little until the smaller spider leaves. The bigger one keeps on going about life, as usual. And the peacock spiders do the same thing. But they also do what peacocks do; they raise their feathers and spread them out (or abdomens in this case and hair) and they dance around a bit to get the attention of the female. They do this dance until the female decides that the male can mate with her. This will usually last just a moment before the male must jump away as fast as he can, or the female will eat him, like all other spiders.

It is very entertaining to watch them dance around like they do. Here is a video that shows them doing the courtship dance by Jurgen Otto (I highly recommend watching all of the other videos too). He is the only photographer in the world to have photographed and taken video of them. And this is his Flikr page to see all of his pictures! If you have seen them before, you will know how small they are. They are not your average sized jumping spider which is about 5 cm, but they are about 4 to 5 mm in size! Yes! Very small! How he does the amazing videos while keeping track of them when they jump away is beyond me. Most jumping spiders don't like to be played with or have humans around too much as I learned this recently while my teacher and I took pictures of my pet. It wouldn't sit still for anything. So I can imagine that it takes him several weeks before he can get enough for a six minute video.

Thanks for checking out this blog. Sorry it has been a few days since the last post, but I am really busy and I hope to have a bit more time in the future to keep up with the blogs. These are really awesome spiders and if you have any questions or just want to share what you think of these epic spiders, please feel free to put a comment below this blog.

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