Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Peacock Spider


The Peacock spider or Gliding spider (Maratus volans) is a species of jumping spider.
The species name means "flying" in Latin, because it was at first thought that the
flaps help the spider in gliding. The red, blue and black colored males have flap-like
extensions of the abdomen with white hairs that can be folded down. They are used
for display during mating: the male raises his abdomen, then expands and raises the
flaps so that the abdomen forms a white-fringed, circular field of color.