Flying Peacock Spider Identification Australia

About the Flying peacock spider

Flying peacock spiders are tiny Maratus jumping spiders, not flying spiders. The old name came from the male's folding abdominal side flaps, but those flaps form a colourful courtship fan rather than wings. This profile is most useful for a close photograph of a tiny eastern Australian jumper with large front-facing eyes and a red, blue, black and white male display pattern.

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 a Flying peacock spider cautiously

The accepted name is Maratus volans (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874), a tiny member of Salticidae and the peacock-spider genus Maratus. The common name is a historical trap: this spider does not fly. In a mature male, the lateral abdominal flaps open and rise to make a round, white-fringed courtship fan while the spider faces a female. The strongest field combination is a very small jumper with large forward-facing principal eyes, a compact salticid body, short alert hops and, in an adult male, a red, blue and black fan with a bright fringe. The fan is an abdominal display structure, not a wing. A photograph should show the whole spider, head and abdomen before a species label is attempted; a bright colour patch or a tiny jumping spider alone only supports Salticidae or a broad Maratus route.

Clues that are not enough on their own

• The word flying or a spider appearing to glide; the abdominal flaps are a display fan, not wings
• Any red, blue, black or white patch, because many Maratus and other salticids are colourful
• Tiny size and large front eyes, which establish a jumping-spider type but not this species
• A raised abdomen or leg wave without the full fan shape, face, locality and adult-male context
• An eastern Australian garden or woodland record treated as proof of M. volans
• A plain female or juvenile matched to a vivid adult-male image
• A social-media label or old Maratus name copied without checking current taxonomy
• A close colour crop that hides the abdomen edge, third legs, eye region and body scale
• A photo of another peacock-spider species used as a representative image for this exact taxon

Colour, sex and life-stage variation

Male and female Flying peacock spiders look dramatically different. Mature males carry the vivid fan and may lift their third legs during display, while females and juveniles are much plainer brown, cream or mottled spiders that can be difficult to separate from other Maratus. Body-size estimates are easily distorted by the legs and camera distance; published field accounts place adults in the few-millimetre range, so a pin-head-to-pea comparison is safer than a confident ruler claim. Fresh moults, worn scales, dust, flash and viewing angle alter the balance of red, blue, black and white. The historic species story also matters: the old epithet and the phrase flying spider came from the movable flaps, and older literature may use combinations or broad Maratus concepts that should be checked against current World Spider Catalog and Australian Faunal Directory treatment. A female or immature animal should not be forced into the colourful male photograph.

Behaviour, web and retreat

Maratus volans is a diurnal, vision-led hunter rather than a capture-web builder. It moves in short, controlled hops across low plants, leaf litter, open woodland and sunny ground-layer vegetation, pausing to orient its large principal eyes. During courtship, the male approaches cautiously, raises his third legs and pivots or steps while expanding the lateral abdominal flaps into the circular fan; the bright field and white fringe are presented to the female as a visual signal. The display is a natural sequence, not a reason to confine two spiders together or tap a leaf to make one perform. Like other salticids it can use silk as a safety line, resting retreat or egg shelter, but the absence of an orb, funnel or tangle web is supporting context rather than a unique species clue. A short, unstaged video can help record a display, but behaviour cannot replace close body and locality evidence.

Australian distribution

World Spider Catalog and the Australian Faunal Directory accept Maratus volans as an Australian salticid, and practical records place it in eastern and south-eastern parts of the country. The state chips on this page are a discovery aid rather than proof of identity: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory are useful search filters, but local peacock-spider records overlap and database points may represent historical names, uncertain observations or a related species. A location outside those filters should prompt an expert review, not an automatic rejection, while an eastern locality does not prove M. volans by itself. Preserve the exact locality at an appropriate privacy precision, date, microhabitat and several views so a museum or arachnologist can compare the male fan, face, legs and abdomen with related Maratus species.

What to do if you find one

Observe in place and avoid touching, collecting or staging a courtship display. For a useful record, photograph the whole spider first, then the forward-facing eyes, dorsal abdomen, leg pattern and any raised fan; include a scale that does not touch the animal and the low plant, bark or leaf-litter setting. A tiny jumper can be injured by fingers, a cup, watering or an attempted macro setup. If one is indoors, guide it onto a card or into a clear container and release it into nearby sheltered low vegetation. Leave silk retreats and egg shelters undisturbed. These spiders are not usually considered dangerous, but an unidentified bite should be washed and monitored; seek medical advice for severe or persistent pain, allergic symptoms, infection signs, spreading symptoms or uncertainty, and call 000 for collapse or breathing difficulty. A guessed Maratus name must never delay care.

Compare with similar spiders

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

• Peacock spider — Peacock spider - use the broader Maratus page when the fan is folded, the sex or locality is unknown, or a photograph cannot support a species-level call.
• Common peacock spider — Common peacock spider - Maratus pavonis can overlap in eastern settings and also has a colourful male display; compare the complete fan pattern and locality rather than any red or blue patch.
• Eastern peacock spider — Eastern peacock spider - Maratus harrisi and related eastern taxa can share tiny size and visual courtship. Specialist comparison is safer when the face, fan edge and adult male characters are incomplete.
• Garden jumping spider — Garden jumping spider - common Opisthoncus and other salticids hunt in gardens and low vegetation with the same forward-facing eyes and short hops, but they do not supply the M. volans fan evidence.

Sources for this profile

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

• Australian Faunal Directory: Maratus volans
• World Spider Catalog: Maratus volans
• Atlas of Living Australia: Maratus volans
• Australian Museum: Jumping spiders
• Queensland Museum: New jumping-spider species
• Girard, Kasumovic & Elias 2011: Multi-Modal Courtship
• Peckhamia: Australian peacock-spider catalogue
• Wikimedia Commons: Maratus volans photograph
• Wikimedia Commons: MalePeacockSpider photograph
• Wikimedia Commons: Maratus volans historical illustration
• healthdirect: Spider bites

Profile review

Published by Spider Identifier Australia. Last factual review: 14 August 2026.