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7 new species of peacock spider discovered

A Sydney scientist has discovered seven new species of peacock spiders, the beautiful, tiny Australian jumping spiders renowned for their courtship dance.

By Gemma Chilton • Reading Time: < 1

Image credit: Footage and photos courtesy Jurgen Otto

A SYDNEY SCIENTIST and photographer, Dr Jürgen Otto, has described seven new species of peacock spider from the southern coast of South Australia and Western Australia.

Endemic to Australia, the tiny beauties (4-6mm) are renowned the world-over for their amazing courtship dances, as shown in the above video.

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The latest discoveries, described this month in the journal Peckhamia, bring the total number of confirmed species in this family of jumping spiders to 48.

Jürgen discovered the new species with Perth-based spider expert, David Knowles, and described and named them with US-based spider expert David Hill.

MORE PHOTOS: 7 new species of tiny, beautiful peacock spiders

One of the seven newly discovered species; M. vespa. (Image: Jürgen Otto / Flickr)

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