A new species of peacock spider has been discovered in Australia

In Australia, a Nemo peacock spider stands on a leaf. It gets its name from the orange-white clownfish cartoon character. Photograph by JOSEPH SCHUBERT

Written by: JUSTIN MENEGUZZI

In a wetland near Gambier Hill in South Australia, Sheryl Holliday crouched in ankle-deep water and pointed her camera at a purple orchid a metre away. Just as she was about to press the shutter, she caught a glimpse of something jumping out of the frame.

It was a sunny day in November, and she didn't know it at the time that she had discovered a new peacock spider. This is a little-known Australian jumping spider known for its brilliant colors and exquisite courtship dances.

"I've been tracking peacock spiders for three or four years," said Holliday, an ecological field official at the Glenelg Nature Trust and a citizen scientist, but it only looks different. Its abdomen is light brown and its orange-white face pattern is distinctive.

Curious, Sheryl posted the photo to Facebook's Peacock Spider page, which caught the attention of page administrator and spider scientist Joseph Schubert, who had never seen such a peacock spider before.

After the two contacted, Holliday collected live specimens and sent them to Melbourne; Schubert and colleagues officially named the arachnid Maratus nemo after Disney's hero, the clownfish Nemo.

The Nemo peacock spider is a newly discovered peacock spider described in the recent journal Evolutionary Systematics. The number of known peacock spider species has increased from 15 in 2011 to 92 today.

Schubert, a biologist at the Victoria Museum, attributes this increase to the convenience of modern photography, which anyone can quickly take with their smartphone and upload them to social media.

Of course, peacock spiders themselves also contribute, they are too popular. With their captivating courtship dances, these rice-grain-sized spiders made headlines and quickly became popular on the Internet.

Dance master

But that doesn't mean it's easy to find them. For most of the year, peacock spiders are brown; only in the spring, after the males have been dehaired, do they become brightly colored. Coupled with their small size, studying this non-toxic arachnid is undoubtedly a challenge.

That's why when identifying new species, Schubert focuses on male color and courtship dances, each of which is unique in that of peacock spiders, where the males demonstrate their physical fitness by flexing and rotating. In the lab, when Schubert encourages the male Nemo peacock spider to dance for the female, he is stunned by the scene in front of him.

The spider did not "fully lift its abdomen like other spiders, and it did not have the peacock spider's famous colorful abdomen, only a small brown buttocks," Schubert explains.

The male also raises a third set of legs and vibrates his abdomen on the ground, making an audible sound that impresses the female. Schubert said we don't know if this is the iconic dance of the Nemo peacock spider.

Schubert notes that it's also "very strange" that Nemo peacock spiders inhabit wetlands, as most known peacock spiders prefer dry bushes.

But peacock spiders always surprise him. In 2020, scientists discovered a peacock spider called "Maratus volpei" that lives in a salt lake. "We know that we should be more open-minded when looking for habitats for peacock spiders," Schubert said.

While peacock spiders, as predators, play an important role in controlling insect populations, we still know very little about their role and conservation status in ecosystems, Schubert added.

Wheels within wheels

"Peacock spiders are very special because they challenge the common perception of spiders: when it comes to spiders, people always think of them as big, hairy and dangerous," said Michael Rix, a researcher and lead curator of the Spider Pavilion at the Queensland Museum in Australia. He was not involved in Schubert's research.

"This is a very good example of how interesting and diverse spiders in Australia are, and we still need to do research," Rix said.

Only about 30% of Australian invertebrates are officially recorded, and there may be as many as 15,000 spider species that remain unidentified.

Discovering new spiders can also benefit humans, controlling agricultural pests and inspiring scientists to develop new therapies, Rix said. The proteins in the venom of funnel web spiders have been used to develop pain-relieving medications, as well as drugs to treat epilepsy, stroke, and even some cancers.

At the same time, the numbers of arachnids and insects plummeted globally. In Australia, Rix warns that habitat loss, wildfires and pesticides could leave entire spider species extinct before they are discovered by humans.

"If we don't know they exist, there's no way to preserve species diversity for future generations," he said.

(Translator: Sky4)