Maratus pavonis, : Zabka, 1991

Otto, Jürgen C. & Hill, David E., 2021, Catalogue of the Australian peacock spiders, Peckhamia 148 (4), pp. 1-35 : 18

The pavonis group

Dunn first used the Latin word for "peacock" (pavo) when he described M. pavonis in 1947. He later wrote an account of the display of this spider in a now-defunct Australian magazine, Walkabout ( Dunn 1957). At the time, only two species in this group were known, M. pavonis and M. splendens . Males within this group can often be identified by the presence of a large red circle or "target" on the fan, but this is often obscured or replaced by a covering of light brown scales. Some males do not even raise their fan as they display. Spiders of Western Australia presently identified as either M. pavonis , M. pavonis var. brunneis , or M. pavonis var. nornalup ( Otto & Hill 2012 c, 2012e; Baehr & Whyte 2016) are included here with M. pavonis but need further study. The recent DNA analysis by Girard et al. (2021) suggests that these represent at least one separate species, or a species complex yet to be described. Unlike the eastern M. pavonis , the fan of these western spiders may have large lateral flaps or more light-brown scale cover, and the legs may have fewer markings.