Here is a male flying peacock spider showing off to the girls

I recently had a request to write about a beautiful and unique species, the flying peacock spider from Australia.

Here are five interesting facts about them:

1. Some people are scared of spiders, but you don’t have to be afraid of these little guys as they are only 5 mm long and are not venomous.
2. They get their name from the small, colourful flaps that the male has on either side of their body.  They use these flaps to attract females by raising them like a peacock.  They then perform a very spectacular dance.  However, they can’t fly.
3. They have excellent vision, with four pairs of eyes that go all around their head.
4. Unlike most other spiders, flying peacock spiders don’t weave webs to catch prey, but use their speed and jumping ability to hunt their very tiny prey.
5. They live along the east coast of Australia, in Queensland and New South Wales and I have seen a similar looking species of peacock spider in a forest in Victoria.

I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.

Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about flying peacock spiders?