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EXIF
Sony a7iii, Loawa 100mm f/2.8 x2 macro lens, ISO 160, 1/160 sec, f/16, flash & diffuser

Chavezshutter

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Hi,

I managed to get nice and close for this shot on this spider which I shot 2 days ago, quite lucky as these are the most skittish and smallest of the species I have found so far, they are about 3-4mm long. This jumping spider was the first species of peacock jumping spider recorded back in 1957 by R.A Dunn. Here is a small quote from the article he wrote "Surely some heathen god must have chuckled as, stealing the brilliance of ruby and sapphire, he clad that tiny form!". It would be many decades before other species would be found, small numbers were found in 1990's before a large number of new species were found from 2005 onwards, there are currently over 90 named species.

DSC02862.jpg
 
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Chavezshutter

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Beautiful, and very interesting background story. :)
Thanks Tina Boes Tina Boes , I am doing a live presentation and Q&A session at a biodiversity meeting next month and I am constantly researching and obversing them to find out more and more about them and I am hooked šŸ˜Š. Just a couple of days ago my brother and I watched a hilarious scene where a male bat-like peacock spider (Maratus Vespertilio) kept challenging another male, behaviour unique to this species, they squared up, raised their tail and spread their colourful tail flaps while spreading their arms and then slowly bounced closer and closer, the smaller male would retreat only to come back from another angle and start dancing and wooing the female that was in the area right from under the dominant male's nose, this went for hours before we had to leave, it was quite the comedy routine and had us laughing. Days of our lives maratus style šŸ˜†
 

Helix_2648

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This little jumping spider is for sure a little colorful wonder! It's so completely to our German boring brown ones which I know. Great shot with the focus on the right place. Would maybe prefer a picture from another angle, but sometimes the situation as it is and it's not always possible to get what you want to have. Thanks for your story and this wonderful photo!
 
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Chavezshutter

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This little jumping spider is for sure a little colorful wonder! It's so completely to our German boring brown ones which I know. Great shot with the focus on the right place. Would maybe prefer a picture from another angle, but sometimes the situation as it is and it's not always possible to get what you want to have. Thanks for your story and this wonderful photo!
All jumping spiders are beautiful and worth shooting, trust me almost all things are very far from Oz, I'm just lucky to live here and have these around me. One of the biggest names in the Maratus world is German biologist Jurgen Otto, originally he came here to study mites but changed to the study peacock spiders after his first encounter, and since then he has named about 50 species, his youtube channel (Peacockspiderman) has helped raise awareness of these spider worlwide, so even all the way over here in Oz we have a German leading the way into researching these creatures and we're glad and grateful to have him.

About the angle, faceshots I think are the best angle for these guys but then you may not see their colourful tail, now and then I can get both in a single shot. I have 100's of shots of them so I will be posting more, thanks for your commentsšŸ™