Okay even for me this is weird. I swear Australia must have been the test lab for evolution because the variety of weirdness in some of our animals that defies classification along normal standards is pretty impressive. However THIS little honey takes out the Gold Medal in the World of Weird as far as I am concerned.
Even someone as blase as I am about the variety of the strange and the beautiful would be frozen in shock when faced with this little beauty in the flesh. I ask you who has heard of a spider with feathers, let alone feathers resembling the headpiece of a Vegas Showgirl. I swear ONLY in Australia does the wildlife get this bizarre.
This stunning creature was actually first discovered in 1994 at Cape Le Grand in Western Australia, but has now been formally described in the journal Peckhamia by biologist Jurgen Otto and the editor of the journal David Hill. According to Otto, although the distinct spotty pattern is unique to this species, the cat-like behavior is in fact shared by all jumping spiders when they approach prey.[IFLScience] Apparently there are 27 known species of Jumping Peacock Spiders and guess what – they’re all found in Australia. It’s not enough that we have more deadly animals than any other country now they have to be stylish as well.
Our boy Otto managed to capture some film of one strutting its stuff and WOW I’m still not sure if I’m amazed or simply in shock. It appears that the males are the more exotic of the species and in my opinion could give the boys from Priscilla Queen of the Desert a run for their money. Here you’ll see them attempting to get the attention of the females, some of whom are just not interested but I will say the boys are persistent in their pursuit despite being ignored or attacked.
Is it just me or does anyone else see a woman’s head (face and hair) on the lady spider’s body that she holds up??
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Didn’t before, do now – even weirder if possible. [that’s a he in the picture]
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I’ve never seen anything like this. The feather things are certainly amazing. But I was also amazed at the jumping–and I would be totally freaked out if one jumped on me. 🙂 It seems to be my day for spiders. This is the second strange spider video I’ve seen to day, and then my cats were climbing all over the kitchen trying to catch an ordinary spider.
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On a roll obviously – I thought I’d never be surprised what my country could come up with animal wise but this really stuns me. Cabaret Spiders – what next.
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Stunning, indeed!
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Interesting spider. Australia has some of the strangest, and most dangerous animals in the world, that’s for sure.
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This I’d never heard of before – glad it’s in WA not Qld but apparently we’ve got one or two of the 27 types in the rain forest a bit further north. As I said not enough to have all the dangerous weird animals now they’re accessorizing!!
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Meeep!… It’s staring at me T_T
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Yeah that’s what I felt when I saw the pic.
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Ugh shivers*
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Still – stylin’ head wear.
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not weird at all, its so beautiful. I am sure the male had the beautiful colors. Thats usually how it goes.
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I just can’t get over the stylin head wear they have.
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I know, but so beautiful
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Did you read the post I sort of mentioned you in. Strange thing, I had a dream, I was falling, drowning and you reached out your hand and pulled me up.
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Haven’t got there yet I’ll go have a look now. Jenni
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What a fantastic discovery! I had the impression those spiders were into yoga 😉
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Honestly I had a melody of ABBA songs playing in my head watching the video – they remind me so much of the drag queens from the movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
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I think I saw them pulling out teeny tiny cigarettes right at the end, Is that possible? Ha! That’s an amazing video Jenni – I bet that 7 minutes took Otto a long, long time to get. You guys hav esome of the oddest fauna in Australia. Thank you!
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Well we do like to be different that’s for sure.
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This made me laugh! I totally agree, Australia has like soooo many poisonous, rare, and unique creatures, insects, fish, snakes, mammals, birds, etc. I don’t think I’ll ever visit down under, lol. Although, it is a beautiful country.
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Well you know – we try to have something for everyone to be afraid of. I thinks it’s to balance out the extreme cuteness of some of our other animals like the Koala etc
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I like that! 😀
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Jenni, What a wonderful post. I had never heard of the peacock spider, so fantastic!
I also looked at the 10 most venomous spiders, most interesting. I hope you don’t mind if I reblog this post?
Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
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No it’s fine – thanks for sharing with your readers.
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Thanks Jenni, am sure people will fiind it hard to believe that it is real. The video is just amazing!!
Thank you so much for letting me share it. 🙂
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😀
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Reblogged this on Barbara Pyett and commented:
As an Australian, I hadn’t seen this spider, ever! It’s so beautiful, I thank Jenni for letting me share it with you. I also thank Jurgen Otto for his patience in filming this extraordinary event.
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Freaked out and laughing at the same time… neat video!! :0
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Strange – I had much the same reaction when I first saw it and then my next thought was Oh so spiders have drag queens too.
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That was fantastic! Thanks for the link. We’ve been looking through the uploader’s other videos, too!
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Glad you liked it Maggie! Too amazing not to share!!
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🙂
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LOL … I’m always intrigued by your posts, but you can keep this creepy fella and the like! I’m am absolutely terrified of spiders, though he looks quite fascinating … as long as he stays put on your continent. 😉
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Yeah but you gotta admit it’s a bit hard to be scared of something that reminds you of a drag queen doing ABBA while dressed like a Vegas Showgirl.
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If it has eight legs, I’m automatically terrified … lol. I have an insane fear of spiders. 😉
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Ahhh – well then can’t do much about that. I’m that way with those large brown flying beetles that look like a cross between a cockroach and a elephant beetle. They just flat out scare me silly – and I’m talking the whole standing on a chair squealing like some 1950’s female sitcom character.
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That’s me to a T! And don’t get me started on cockroaches. *SHUDDER* I don’t do creepy crawlies at all … lol.
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We have these INSANE flying cockroaches in Qld some about half the length of your hand [length not breadth thank the gods] plus once again they FLY as if they weren’t creepy enough as it was – ewwwww
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I will never sleep again. OMG, I would stroke out from the horror!
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Yeah I managed to wake people two streets away when I was in boarding school. We were on a hill and it was my first year having my own room as a boarder and they said not to open the window at night [massive but beautiful trees outside] but I thought the nuns were just worried about us sneaking out.
Wasn’t I wrong – flew right into my face while sleeping and I screamed the place down. My economics teacher asked the class the next day had we heard the yelling at night [lived close to the school] and ‘my friends’ dropped my right in it. To this day it gives me the shivers!!
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Yikes! I bet. 😦
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😦 😦
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Amazing! Aren’t we lucky!
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We are aren’t we. I’m positive Australia was the test lab for evolution as there are too many things here that are just that little bit out of kilter with the rest of nature….. so when god or who/whatever finished experimenting here and moved the final phase to Africa I think someone forgot to clean the lab and voila – Australia home of the weird and wonderful
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If you tell me you share a continent with that spider I promise I’ll never show up there. I deal with little ones and I get creeped out…
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It’s in Western Australia – right on the other side of the country with a HUGE desert in between. If it came here the Qld spiders would make fun of it and then eat it.
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Oh wonderful.. Mocking Spiders, you call yourself a spider.. Is that a mandible now this is a mandible!
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No silly it’s our birds [The Kookaburra] that sound like people laughing and mocking each other.
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Cute spider. I love jumping spiders.
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Is it me or does the whole thing remind you of a dance number from Brazil or somewhere similar. 🙂
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I can’t even look at an image of a spider without my blood running cold. Maybe I met my end in another life, caught in a web and AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!! Show me puppies! Not spiders! 🙂
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Awwww come on – this little [well ok not so little] fellow is obviously a lover not a fighter. A point made clear when the female keeps beating him up.
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One time, too long ago now, we were visiting friends in St Kilda. They had a cottage out in the woods somewhere. Wanted us to go for a couple of days. It sounded lovely. Until they let on that the cottage had no plumbing. But there was an outhouse. You had to take a torch, though, because a tarantula lived in the outhouse.
We stayed in the city that visit.
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Lucky it wasn’t a Funnel Web or a Red Back – Tarantulas just look spooky but really don’t pose any threat [except to your nerves] but those other two – not good.
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You say the sweetest things, Jenni.
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I do try [ingratiating smile]
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Beautiful colours, but that is a field of NOPE for me. I haven’t gotten over my fear of spiders just yet :p.
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I’m sure he’s more intent on impressing his mate, than scaring you!
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I just figured out who the clip reminds me of – Peter Allen singing I Go To Rio in full costume including Maracas and dancing – so not a lot to be scared of I think. 😀
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But what if he sees ME as a mate? haha. I don’t wanna be impressed by him.
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😀
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I can understand that but I find it hard to be scared of something that reminds me of Peter Allen singing the song ‘I go to Rio’ complete with Maracas etc.
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🙂 🙂
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hahaha. I have to admit its colours are beautiful. As long as it stays away from me, I don’t mind :p
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🙂
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It s amazing
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That is one word for it 😀
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That’s one of the most surprising, extraordinary, stunning things I’ve ever seen about arachnids. No, I’m wrong: it’s THE most surprising, etc. It’s beautiful. What dear little creatures they are. What other spider is it that attacks them and why ? I have so many questions … but mostly I’m just … gobsmacked. THANK YOU !
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The female is the one attacking – she’s already pregnant and does NOT want to mate but the male doesn’t seem to get the picture [persistent little fellow].
I know exactly how you feel when I first saw it I was stunned/amazed/shocked – will you get the idea.
The weird thing is the photo reminded me of Priscilla Queen of the Desert but the video made me think Peter Allen singing ‘I Go to Rio’ in that puffy shirt with maracas.
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R O T F L !!!! Spot bloody on !! [grin]
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😀 Gotta love Down Under the land of the weird and strange.
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You talkin to ME ?
(my de Niro for the day)
[grin]
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🙂
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Haha! At first glance, it looks like a cheerleader or a gymnast doing floor exercises 🙂 Very nice, thanks for sharing!
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Thanks – very odd look for a spider
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This is amazing. Thanks. I plan to forward it to some of my family — especially the one who wants to go to Australia. I know they’ll enjoy it if they can get over the Ick factor.
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It really is such a strange creature. He reminds me of drag queens doing ABBA while dressed as a Vegas Showgirl.
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ABBA! Yes
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😀
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You can see why designers look to nature for inspiration, truly beautiful.
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True
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This is an amazing and beautiful looking creature. BTW – I like spiders.
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He is rather dashing isn’t he and he puts such a lot of effort into his ‘look at me’ dance. 🙂
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This made me throw my phone. Thanks for that!
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😀
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