1. Maratus volans
"הקופצן הטווסי"
Peacock spider
קלריטה ואפרים
מצגות

2. 70 מינים של עכבישי "הקופצן הטווסי" - עכבישים צבעוניים שמבצעים ריקוד חיזור ייחודי - זוהו בשבע השנים האחרונות. החוקר שתיעד אותם לא התלהב מהם תחילה, משום שהוא עיוור צבעים למחצה
קופצן טווסי (שם מדעי: (Maratus הוא סוג של עכבישים ממשפחת הקופצניים. עכבישים אלו זכו לכינוי "קופצן טווסי" בשל בטנם הצבעונית והמנוצה, שאותה הם נוהגים להציג עת הם מבצעים ריקוד חיזור.במין אחד לפחות, Maratus vespertilio, מתקיימת פרישת ה"נוצות" גם בעת מאבק טקסי בין זכרים

3. Two new peacock spiders identified in Western Australia
Biologist Jürgen Otto and colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily
colourful dancing spiders

4. Female Maratus volans with prey

5. Maratus Volans Sp

6. קופצן תופס חרק

7. Maratus unicup
It is only a few millimetres in size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.
But when biologist Jürgen Otto first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he didn’t immediately recognise how special it was.
“I didn’t think much of it because I’m partially colour blind,” he says. “But there was quite a reaction to photographs of it on the internet, with people saying it’s beautiful.”
Maratus unicup is one of two new peacock spider species Otto and his colleague David Hill have named in a new paper published in the international spider journal Peckhamia.
Otto discovered the spider near Lake Unicup in Western Australia last year. He said the new species was notable for its courtship display in which the male dances – swinging its abdomen from side to side – while the female watches from a close distance.

8. The second species they have named Maratus tortus and was discovered by environmental consultant and educator David Knowles in 1994 near Walpole in WA.
Knowles and Otto have returned to the site several times and were finally able to capture specimens of the spider last year.
Knowles had originally nicknamed the species “hokey pokey” because of the male’s curious twisting dance.
“There’s no other peacock spider that has this kind of a display,” Otto said. “It looks almost like a Spanish bullfight, where the female is the bull and the male is the bullfighter.”
In the new paper, Otto and Hill say there are now 70 species of peacock spiders, the majority of which have been named by them during the past seven years.
Otto publishes images and videos of the spiders he finds on his website and on his Facebook and YouTube pages. Most of the spiders are found in WA or south-eastern Australia. But they can be elusive.
Maratus tortus

9. Maratus nigromaculatus

10. This little fellow (just a few mm) - Maratus vespertilio-female

11. Maratus vespertilio -male

12. Maratus splendens

14. Maratus jactatus, male. Image credit: Jurgen Otto / David Hill.

15. Maratus sceletus, male. Image credit: Jurgen Otto / David Hill.

16. Peacock spider Maratus caeruleus by Jurgen Otto

17. Behavior
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. The species, and indeed the whole genus Maratus have been compared to peacocks in this respect. The third pair of legs is also raised for display, showing a brush of black hairs and white tips. These legs are also used in a clapping motion to further attract a female's attention. While approaching the female, the male vibrates his abdomen while waving raised legs and tail, and dances from side to side.
Phidippus mystaceus is a large (12 mm) jumping spider. This one is a female.
Jumping spiders are often very colourful spiders. Maratus volans is not an exception.  Although tiny, male spiders have an iridescent colouring of red, green and blue.

18. The cephalothorax (head-breast part) and legs are usually dark brown to black with red stripes but the greenish upper abdomen is patterned with red and blue stripes. Females and the immatures of both sexes are dull, brown drab coloured creatures.  Mature spiders are small with a length of between 4 and 5 mm.  The spider can be found in Queensland and New South Wales.

19. The spider's courtship behaviour is comparable with the European Saitis barbipes. The name of the peacock spider was changed a few times. From Attus volans to Saitis volans and recently to Maratus volans.
Like many other Australian common spiders the genus name was given by European arachnologists more than a century ago. After detailed studying many Australian spiders are found not to be related to European spiders and will undergo name changes.
Maratus volans has a few common names: flying spider, gliding spider and the preferred name peacock spider.
Although volans in its name suggest the spider can fly, it actually does not use its flaps to extend the distance of its jump. He uses the abdominal flaps only for courtship and displays them like a peacock.

20. Displaying males of the three species associated with the volans group of the genus Maratus. (1-3) Maratus elephans from Andersons Flat near Chaffey Dam, New South Wales. (4-6) Three different Maratus pardus from Cape Le Grand National Park, Western Australia. (7-9) Three different Maratus volans from Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, New South Wales. The position of legs III relative to the fan varies in the three species from (2) one leg in front and one behind in Maratus elephans, to (5) both legs in front in Maratus pardus, to (8) both legs behind in Maratus volans. All three species are vividly and distinctly coloured. Otto & Hill (2015).

21. Clarita-Efraim pps: www.clarita-efraim.com chefetze@netvision.net.il
לצפייה ביוטיוב (מומלץ):
Clarita-Efraim pps:

22. Clarita-Efraim pps: www.clarita-efraim.com chefetze@netvision.net.il
מקורות:
Clarita-Efraim pps: