Animal
Peacock spider
The peacock spider is a tiny, colorful spider from Australia. There are many kinds, and this page is about one of them. To say hello to a female, the male lifts up a bright, fancy fan and dances!
The peacock spider is a jumping spider from Australia, smaller than a grain of rice. The male has a rainbow-colored abdomen with flaps that unfold into a fan, like a peacock's tail. He waves the fan and his long third legs in a dance to win over a female, and he sends little vibrations through the ground at the same time.
Maratus volans, the best-known peacock spider, is a tiny Australian jumping spider (Salticidae) with one of the most elaborate courtship displays known in arthropods. Males unfurl iridescent opisthosomal flaps into a fan, wave ornamented third legs and produce substrate-borne vibrations; experiments show that mating success depends on the combination of visual and vibratory signals.
Photo: Nigel Main, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet one kind of peacock spider
The peacock spider is a teeny, tiny spider.
The male is red, blue and orange, like a rainbow. He has a fan on his back that he can open and close. He uses it to dance!
Peacock spiders are tiny jumping spiders that live only in Australia. This page is about the best-known kind, Maratus volans. A male's body is only about 4.5 millimeters long, about the size of a grain of rice.
Males are amazingly colorful. Their abdomen is covered with bright red, blue and orange scales, and it has flaps that are usually tucked around the sides. When a male meets a female, he unfolds the flaps into a fan, just like a peacock spreading its tail. Females are mostly brown or gray, which helps them blend in.
Maratus volans belongs to the Salticidae, the jumping spiders, which Girard and colleagues (2011) describe as the visual specialists among arthropods. Otto and Hill (2011) call it the best-known Maratus; they measured one adult male at 4.5 millimeters. The genus, found only in Australia, has grown from seven species known to western science in 2011 to more than 110 (Australian Geographic).
Males carry brightly colored opisthosomal flaps, normally folded around the abdomen, that unfold into a fan during courtship; their iridescent colors come from scales and hairs. Females are mottled brown or gray, a camouflage typical of the genus.
Quick facts
- Group
- Invertebrate
- Length
- up to 4.5 mm
- Lifespan in the wild
- up to 1 years
Where it lives
Peacock spiders live only in Australia.
This one lives mostly near the east coast. They hunt among leaves and plants on the ground.
All peacock spiders live in Australia. Maratus volans is found most often near the coast of New South Wales, including national parks near Sydney. It has also been found near Brisbane and in other parts of Queensland, and near Melbourne in Victoria.
Peacock spiders live in many kinds of places in southern and eastern Australia, such as coastal forests, scrublands, grasslands and open woodlands.
Otto and Hill (2011) describe M. volans as found most often near the coast of New South Wales (Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Seal Rocks, Coolah Tops), photographed near Warburton, 70 kilometers east of Melbourne, and near Brisbane; Queensland Museum records add southeastern and central Queensland and Thornton Peak in tropical North Queensland. Girard and colleagues collected their study animals around Sydney.
Australian Geographic notes that the genus as a whole lives mostly in subtropical and temperate southern and eastern Australia, in coastal forests, scrublands, grasslands and open woodlands. The map shades Australia, but the species lives only in parts of the east.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Endemic to Australia. Found most often near the coast of New South Wales, and also recorded near Brisbane, in southeastern and central Queensland, at Thornton Peak in North Queensland and near Warburton, east of Melbourne. It lives only in parts of eastern Australia, not across the whole country shown.
Places: Australia.
Source: https://peckhamia.com/peckhamia/PECKHAMIA_96.1.pdf · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Australia.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
A tiny hunter
Peacock spiders eat tiny bugs.
They do not make webs to catch food. They look with their big eyes, then jump on their food!
Peacock spiders are hunters. Like other jumping spiders, they do not build webs to trap food. Instead, they use their excellent eyesight to spot small insects and other tiny creatures, then creep closer and pounce.
In the laboratory, scientists feed peacock spiders fruit flies and sometimes small crickets.
As salticids, which Girard and colleagues call the visual specialists among arthropods, peacock spiders hunt by sight rather than with webs. Girard and colleagues (2011) kept their M. volans on fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and occasional crickets.
Did you know?
Scientists have found lots of new kinds of peacock spiders.
In 2011 only seven kinds of peacock spiders were known to science. Now more than 110 have been described.
The genus Maratus grew from seven species known to western science in 2011 to more than 110 described species.
Big eyes and a hidden fan
A peacock spider has two very big eyes at the front of its face.
The male has a fan on his back. Most of the time, the fan is folded up. He opens it only to dance.
Look at a peacock spider's face and you will see two huge eyes staring back. Jumping spiders have some of the best eyesight of any spiders, which helps them hunt and watch each other's dances.
The male's fan is made of flaps on his abdomen, covered in tiny colored scales. His third pair of legs is longer than the others and decorated with a tuft of black hairs and white tips. He raises these legs like flags during his dance. The fluffy white parts at the front of his face are his pedipalps, small leg-like parts he flicks during courtship.
Males have elongated, ornamented third legs: in M. volans the metatarsi bear a dense tuft of black setae and the tarsi a thick clump of white setae (Girard and colleagues 2011, after Hill). The opisthosoma can be bobbed up and down independently of expanding and retracting the flaps.
The colors come from iridescent scales and hairs on the abdomen (Australian Geographic). Pedipalps are flicked intermittently throughout courtship, and also when males are alone, so the flicking may not be a courtship signal at all.
From egg to dancer
A mother peacock spider lays her eggs in a little silk bag.
She guards the eggs until the babies come out. The babies shed their skin a few times as they grow up.
After mating, a female peacock spider lays her eggs in a silk cocoon and guards it carefully. The tiny spiderlings come out about 4 to 5 weeks later.
The young hatch in summer and grow by molting, shedding their outer skin several times before they become adults. Only grown-up males get their bright colors and fans. Peacock spiders usually live for up to about a year.
For the genus Maratus, Australian Geographic reports that females lay eggs in a silk cocoon and guard it until spiderlings emerge some 4 to 5 weeks later; young hatch in summer and pass through several molts before adulthood, and most live up to about a year.
Otto and Hill (2011) photographed mating pairs of M. volans at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, and Girard and colleagues collected mature males and females there in October and November, the austral spring.
The famous fan dance
When a male finds a female, he dances!
He lifts his colorful fan and waves it from side to side. He raises his long legs up high. He also bobs his body to make tiny shakes she can feel.
The male's courtship is one of the fanciest dances known in spiders and insects. He raises his long third legs, lifts his abdomen and opens the flaps into a fan. Then he swings the fan from side to side like a metronome, usually waving his legs in time.
Scientists used a laser to measure tiny movements and found that the male also makes vibrations by bobbing his abdomen, which travel through the ground to the female. A whole dance can last from 6 to 51 minutes. Females pay attention to both the show and the vibrations.
Girard and colleagues (2011) filmed complete courtship at regular and high speed and used laser vibrometry, showing for the first time that M. volans males add vibratory signals to their ornaments and motion displays. Courtship lasted 6 to 51 minutes (mean about 24). Elements include opisthosomal bobbing (with vibrations), third-leg waves at about 3 per second, the fan dance (the open fan swung laterally like a metronome, about 3 cycles per second, usually synchronized with leg waving), fan-flapping, and a pre-mount display of about 54 seconds with leg tremors.
In mating trials, Girard, Elias and Kasumovic (2015) found strong sexual selection: male success depended on a combination of visual and vibratory displays, supporting both the redundant-signal and multiple-message hypotheses.
Did you know?
A peacock spider is about as small as a grain of rice.
A male Maratus volans measured by scientists was just 4.5 millimeters long.
Otto and Hill (2011) measured a male M. volans at 4.5 millimeters, similar to the other Maratus males they measured.
Tiny spiders, big discoveries
Scientists keep finding new kinds of peacock spiders.
They need their wild homes to stay healthy. Some kinds live in only one small place.
Maratus volans has not been given an IUCN conservation status. It is the best-known peacock spider and has been found in several parts of eastern Australia.
Many other kinds of peacock spiders were only discovered in the last few years, and some live in very small areas, which makes them vulnerable to losing their homes, to climate change and to changes in bushfires. One kind from Western Australia was declared critically endangered in 2018.
Maratus volans has no IUCN Red List assessment (Not Evaluated). Australian Geographic notes that many Maratus species are newly described with unknown status, that species with restricted ranges are vulnerable to habitat loss, climate change and altered fire regimes, and that Sarah's peacock spider (M. sarahae) of the Stirling Range was declared critically endangered in 2018.
The rapid rise from 7 to more than 110 known species shows how much remains to be learned about these spiders' distributions, which future assessments will depend on.
Did you know?
The male peacock spider dances with his fan and his legs.
Scientists found that male peacock spiders also send tiny vibrations through the ground while they dance.
Laser vibrometry revealed vibratory signals during M. volans courtship, described for the first time by Girard and colleagues (2011).
Amazing facts
-
A peacock spider is about as small as a grain of rice.
A male Maratus volans measured by scientists was just 4.5 millimeters long.
Otto and Hill (2011) measured a male M. volans at 4.5 millimeters, similar to the other Maratus males they measured.
-
The male peacock spider dances with his fan and his legs.
Scientists found that male peacock spiders also send tiny vibrations through the ground while they dance.
Laser vibrometry revealed vibratory signals during M. volans courtship, described for the first time by Girard and colleagues (2011).
-
Scientists have found lots of new kinds of peacock spiders.
In 2011 only seven kinds of peacock spiders were known to science. Now more than 110 have been described.
The genus Maratus grew from seven species known to western science in 2011 to more than 110 described species.
Words to know
- courtship
- what an animal does to attract a mate
- jumping spider
- a spider with big front eyes that hunts by pouncing instead of using a web
- vibration
- a tiny, fast shaking movement that can travel through the ground
- iridescent
- shiny with colors that change when you look from different angles
- pedipalps
- small leg-like parts beside a spider's mouth
- endemic
- found in only one place in the world
Discovery challenge
-
What does the male peacock spider open to dance?
What does a male peacock spider unfold during his dance?
Which structure does a courting male M. volans unfurl and wave?
- A colorful fan on his abdomen
- A pair of feathery wings
- A sticky web
Show the answer
A colorful fan on his abdomen
He opens a colorful fan on his back and waves it.
Flaps on his abdomen unfold into a fan, which he waves from side to side.
The iridescent opisthosomal flaps, unfurled into a fan and swung laterally like a metronome.
-
Where do peacock spiders live?
In which country do peacock spiders live?
Where is the genus Maratus found?
- Australia
- Canada
- Egypt
Show the answer
Australia
They live only in Australia.
All peacock spiders live in Australia; this kind lives mainly in the east.
Only in Australia; M. volans mainly in New South Wales and Queensland.
-
Besides dancing, what else does the male send to the female?
What did scientists discover the male sends to the female along with his dance?
Which signal type did laser vibrometry reveal in M. volans courtship?
- Tiny vibrations
- A flower
- A loud song
Show the answer
Tiny vibrations
He makes tiny shakes she can feel through the ground.
He bobs his abdomen to send vibrations through the ground to the female.
Substrate-borne vibrations linked to opisthosomal bobbing, alongside visual displays.
-
How big is a peacock spider?
About how long is a male peacock spider?
What body length did Otto and Hill record for a male M. volans?
- About 4.5 millimeters
- About 45 centimeters
- About 4.5 meters
Show the answer
About 4.5 millimeters
It is tiny, like a grain of rice.
About 4.5 millimeters, about the size of a grain of rice.
4.5 millimeters (one measured male).
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain what courtship is and why some animals have colorful displays.
- Describe how male peacock spiders use both sight and vibration to communicate.
- Compare the life cycle of a spider (egg, spiderling, molts, adult) with an insect's.
- Discuss how scientists keep discovering new species.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a female peacock spider pay attention to both the dance and the vibrations?
- Why could a tiny spider have gone unnoticed by scientists for so long?
- How do you think scientists measure vibrations too small to feel?
Try at home or in class
- Put a hand flat on a table while a friend taps gently at the other end: can you feel vibrations the way a female spider can?
- Measure 4.5 millimeters on a ruler and find something in your home that is the same size.
Key vocabulary: courtship, jumping spider, vibration, iridescent, pedipalps, endemic
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Multi-modal courtship in the peacock spider, Maratus volans (Girard, Kasumovic and Elias, 2011) , PLoS ONE (full text via Europe PMC)
- Female preference for multi-modal courtship: multiple signals are important for male mating success in peacock spiders (Girard, Elias and Kasumovic, 2015) , Proceedings of the Royal Society B (PubMed abstract)
- An illustrated review of the known peacock spiders of the genus Maratus from Australia (Otto and Hill, 2011) , Peckhamia 96.1
- Peacock spider (Maratus) fact file , Australian Geographic
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.