Beautiful New Species Of Peacock Spiders Resembling Famous ‘Starry Night’ Painting Discovered

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – A beautiful new species of Peacock spiders have been discovered in Australia. This colorful little spider is no more than four millimeters in length and it’s completely harmless.

Named Maratus constellatus it was spotted by Joseph Schubert of Australia’s Museums Victoria, who has spent the past few years studying the Peacock spider.

Seven new species of Peacock Spiders have been discovered in Australia. Credit:  Joseph Schubert

Schubert has described a total of 12 species of Peacock spiders since 2019 where he discovered five new ones.

“I would have to say Maratus constellatus is my favorite by far – it’s such a nice looking species, the pattern reminds me of The Starry Night by Van Gogh. Plus I traveled a very, very long way to find it,” he explained.

If you look at the patterns and colors, you can clearly see the spider’s colors and patterns do resemble Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting ‘Starry Night’.

Schubert explains arachnophobes have no reason to fear creepy critters.

“These little guys are completely harmless! They’re roughly the length of a grain of rice,” Schubert said.

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Around 60 of the 74 peacock spider species have been discovered in the past 10 years, according to Schubert’s research findings.

“This interest is driven by the unique courtship behavior of the males of most species which display an elevated and often vibrantly colored opisthosoma and third pair of legs to nearby females,’ the report states.

Credit:  Joseph Schubert

Of all the peacock spider species, almost half can only be found in Western Australia’s south-west.

“The Southwest Australia ecoregion is known as one of the planet’s major biodiversity hotspots and a hotspot for peacock spider diversity, “Schubert’s report states.

Written by Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer