Biologist Jürgen Otto and
colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily colourful dancing
spiders
Sat 21 Jul
2018 23.14 BSTLast modified on Sun 22 Jul 2018 03.25 BST
It is only a few millimetres in
size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured
markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.
But when biologist Jürgen Otto
first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he
didn’t immediately recognise how special it was.
“I didn’t think much of it
because I’m partially colour blind,” he says. “But there was quite a reaction
to photographs of it on the internet, with people saying it’s beautiful.”
Otto discovered the spider near
Lake Unicup in Western
Australia last year. He said the new species was notable
for its courtship display in which the male dances – swinging its abdomen from
side to side – while the female watches from a close distance.
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