By Mindy Weisberger, Senior
Writer | June 3, 2016 07:31am ET
They're fuzzy. They're colorful.
And they wave their legs in the air like they just don't care
.
They're peacock spiders, a group
of tiny arachnids that are small in stature but giants in the charisma
department, best known for their brilliant colors and energetic
courtship "dances" — much like the showy, fan-tailed
peacocks that inspired the spiders' name.
And scientists recently described
seven new peacock spider species — so let the spider dance party commence!
Researchers found the newly
described species — all of which were in the genus Maratus — in
Western Australia and South Australia, bringing the total number of known Maratus species
to 48. The spiders in this genus measure on average about 0.16 to 0.20 inches
(4 to 5 millimeters) in length, with females a bit larger than the males.
Females that belong to this genus
tend to be dappled in different shades of brown. But it's the males' dramatic
coloration that catches the eye and prompts biologists to assign them whimsical
nicknames like "Sparklemuffin,"
which was bestowed upon a peacock spider species described in 2015. Colors and
patterns are displayed on the males' abdomens, frequently on a "fan"
— a flat structure that is lifted up toward the female during the male's
courtship performance.
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