Keep those photos coming in, folks (or, as it’s spelled now—for reasons that elude me—”folx”).
Today we have one of my favorite arthropods, jumping spiders. The photos come from Tony Eales of Queensland, whose notes are indented. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Just a quick one to celebrate the fact I photographed my first Maratus volans.
The is THE classic Peacock Jumping Spider, widespread along the south-eastern seaboard of Australia. They are also one of the most colourful, but that can be relative in a genus with so many colourful species. Next things to tick off are photographs of a male displaying and to photograph the other local species, Maratus ottoi. A friend of mine has spent 6 years trying to get a photograph of M. ottoi displaying and finally got a beautiful shot last weekend.
Much to the disgust of many of my Peacock Jumping Spider obsessed friends, two common and fairly dowdy jumping spiders have been shifted from genus Hypoblemum to the Peacock Spider genus Maratus. This had the effect of instantly upping lots of people’s peacock spider counts from zero to two. There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the purists. I present my photos of these two new members of the elite genus. I think they are quite nice.
Maratus griseus male:
Maratus griseus female:
Maratus scutulatus male:
Maratus scutulatus female:
Folx = “I’m so virtuous I actually really sincerely truly do mean EVERYONE.” It makes my skin crawl.
These spiders, on the other hand, are beautiful.
Congratulations, Tony! I wonder if one could get a male to display in front of a fake female, pinned out in front of the lens.
I’m told the pros use pinned dead females to get the guys dancing. They used to use live females but they kept eating the guys.
Excellent photos!
Incredible spiders and incredible photos. I am among the zero folx and that hasn’t changed with the taxonomy revision.
Beautiful little jumpers. I’ve seen this species before, and enjoy seeing them again.
Yes it’s a little bit embarrassing that it took me so long to find one. The ranger at where I found it said “They’re like fleas on a dog there, you can’t miss” even though this was my third attempt at this spot.
This Australian spider reminds me of something Bill Bryson wrote in a book called ‘Down Under’. In it, Bill tells of a visit to a second hand book store, where he finds a book titled ‘Dangerous Things in Australia That Can Kill You, Volume 19’.
My favourite book as a child was called Australia’s Venomous Wildlife, no joke. Great book for a kid who loved animals