Behold Western Australia’s Maratus personatus, a tiny, blue-masked, zebra-striped, male peacock spider that is one of a diverse and rather adorable spider family. From peacock spider enthusiast Jürgen Otto:
To the best of my knowledge this spider was discovered by David Knowles from Perth. In 2012 David sent me photographs of it, taken 20 years or so earlier and accompanied by his common name for it “Pied Bluemask Peacock Salspider”. In October 2013 I managed to find some individuals and raised some juveniles they produced to adulthood.
The brightly colored males dance and wave to attract females. Check out more peacock spiders on Otto’s Flickr and Facebook accounts.
Learn/watch more on this site: The Peacock Spiders of Australia and SciFri’s Shake Your Silk-Maker: The Dance of the Peacock Spider.via New Scientist.
This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.
Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.