Coastal Peacock Spider Identification in Australia

About the Coastal peacock spider

The Coastal peacock spider is Maratus speciosus, a tiny jumping spider of south-western Western Australia. It is best treated as a cautious species comparison when a very small Maratus is photographed on coastal dune plants, low shrubs or leaf litter near Perth. The raised fan, orange-yellow fringe and independent third-leg signalling are useful clues in a sharp adult male photograph, but a still image of a female, juvenile or folded fan often supports only a broader peacock-spider result.

Exact-species specimen views

These licensed exact-taxon photographs show useful anatomy and variation. Use each caption for record and image context; no single image set represents every colour, posture or habitat.

How to identify the Coastal peacock spider without overcalling Maratus speciosus

The current accepted name is Maratus speciosus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874), in the jumping-spider family Salticidae. The World Spider Catalog accepts the species and records it from Western Australia. It is one of the tiny Maratus whose adult males can be recognised in a good macro view by a raised fan with red-striped, iridescent cobalt-blue areas and a conspicuous orange-yellow fringe. The long setae around the fan are bicoloured, and the display includes an asymmetric semaphore in which the third legs signal independently. These are useful adult-male clues, not a test to perform on a live spider. The older names Salticus speciosus, Habrocestum speciosum and Saitis speciosus may still appear in literature. A female, juvenile, folded fan or distant photograph may justify only peacock spider, Maratus or Salticidae because species confirmation depends on a complete view and close comparison.

Clues that are not enough on their own

• A tiny size or a Perth address alone; several Maratus and other salticids overlap those clues.
• Blue, red, orange or white colour without the whole adult male fan and body context; structural colour changes with angle and light.
• A raised abdomen or waving legs seen from a blurry video; courtship posture is not a substitute for taxonomic comparison.
• A female or juvenile with a plain brown-grey body; the bright fan is an adult male structure and is absent or undeveloped in other stages.
• An online photograph labelled peacock spider or Maratus without a verified source, locality and exact species match.

Colour, sex and life-stage variation

Adult male and female Coastal peacock spiders look very different. The male has the bright fan and display setae; the female and immature stages are much duller brown or grey and can carry a foliate or leaf-like abdominal pattern. A male with the fan folded can look like an ordinary tiny dark jumper, while glare, angle, moult, worn setae and camera white balance can change the apparent red, blue, orange or white. General Maratus adults are only a few millimetres long, so body estimates from a phone photograph are easily distorted by leg spread and distance. Do not treat a bright male as a template for every individual, or a plain female as evidence against the species. The fan is a courtship structure, not a permanent open badge.

Behaviour, web and retreat

This is a diurnal visual hunter. Maratus can be found moving through low shrubs, dune plants and leaf litter on sunny days, and they do not use a broad prey-catching web. A short silken retreat may be made for moulting or guarding an egg sac, so silk at a hiding place does not contradict a jumping-spider identification. The adult male display described for M. speciosus alternates a stationary semaphore with a fan dance while the spider steps to one side; the elevated fan and third legs move in a precise, asymmetric sequence. Courtship behaviour is valuable context only when the spider has already been identified carefully. Do not wave a finger, shine a light at close range or move vegetation to provoke a display.

Australian distribution

The accepted distribution is Western Australia, with the species known from south-western coastal sand-dune communities and commonly reported around the Perth coast. Historical references to the Swan River or old New South Wales wording belong to nineteenth-century geography and should not be read as an eastern-state range. Keep the state filter to Western Australia. Many other Maratus species also occur in Western Australia, including close coastal and Perth-region forms, so a coastal address or a peacock-like male fan does not prove M. speciosus by itself. Use the exact species name only when the locality, body pattern and specialist comparison agree.

What to do if you find one

For a useful record, photograph from above without touching the spider and include the whole body, the substrate, a broad locality and whether the fan was raised. A macro image with a safe scale reference is more useful than a cropped colour patch. Do not collect, trap or carry a tiny jumper away from a dune plant, and avoid trampling coastal vegetation. Use closed shoes and gloves for gardening. If a bite is suspected, wash the area, apply a wrapped cold pack and follow healthdirect guidance; call 000 for collapse, breathing difficulty or severe allergic symptoms.

Compare with similar spiders

Use body shape, web or retreat, location and behaviour together before settling on a likely match.

• Peacock spider — Peacock spider / Maratus species - use the broader genus result when a tiny jumping spider is clear but the fan edge, locality or adult sex is not.
• Common peacock spider — Common peacock spider (Maratus pavonis) - females and folded-fan males can overlap in colour and size; southern Australia range and a generic display do not separate the species.
• Banksia peacock spider — Banksia peacock spider and other Western Australian Maratus - coastal or Perth habitat is shared by several species, and specialist body comparison is safer than a colour match.
• Garden jumping spider — Garden jumping spider or another salticid - large front-facing eyes and jumping behaviour are family-level clues. Without a sharp view of the fan or adult anatomy, stop at the broader jumping-spider result.

Sources for this profile

These accessible authoritative sources support the identification and bite-safety context on this page.

• World Spider Catalog: Maratus speciosus
• Peckhamia 103.2: Maratus speciosus
• Peckhamia 119.1: Coastal peacock spider courtship
• Peckhamia 122.1: Maratus speciosus display
• Peckhamia 148.4: Australian peacock-spider catalogue
• Australian Museum: Jumping spiders
• Australia Post: Peacock spiders
• healthdirect: Spider bites

Profile review

Published by Spider Identifier Australia. Last factual review: 13 August 2026.