Toxic Tango II: Peacock Spiders

Description

Peacock spiders are tiny, colorful jumping spiders. They are venomous to their prey, but too small to harm humans. All spiders are venomous to some degree, so any would qualify for my Toxic Tango Series. But colorful peacock spiders are also amazing! They are actually quite tiny, only about 4mm, but I wanted to show them much larger than life in order to reveal their amazing patterns and colors. The males have brilliantly colored abdominal flaps which they raise straight up during courtship displays. They strut, dance, shimmy and shake to impress potential mates. Peacock spiders comprise the Maratus genus of the Salticidae family of spiders, and are endemic to Australia.