Frank ColeLook don’t get us wrong we pretty much love all of Mother Nature’s creatures, but this one pushes our love limit.
If there’s that one little thing that’ll make you cheer up today, it’s the Maratus Tasmanicus. Better known as “Peacock Spider,” it’s a spider that could certainly be classified as “unreservedly charming” for its cool, cute and extraordinary features.
Measuring a mere four millimeters long, the “Peacock Spider” is famed for its brightly colored abdomen and impressive lively courtship “dances.” When courting the female, the male of this species puts on display his two curved skin-like flaps on either side of his brilliantly colored abdomen. In his “sexy” moves, the flaps collapse down against the sides of the body like a scarf before waving his legs and vibrating his abdomen to lure the attention of his female date.
As if that’s not enough, the male spider raises his third legs which are covered in black bristles with white-tipped ends. Like a peacock, he then raises the flaps to display the beautifully colored abdomen, which is probably the final act of luring the female spider into a steamy session.
This incredible phenomenon was discovered in Australia by Jurgen Otto, a Sydney-based biologist who has been studying arachnids since 2005. In addition to being lured to their fabulously colorful body, Jurgen was deeply touched by their characteristically multihued and peacock-inspired mating “dance.”
