Amazing! Two New Spider Species Discovered In Australia

Sparklemuffin and Skeletorus are actually two new spider species that have been discovered in Australia.

The colourful arachnids are peacock spiders, famed for their bright colours and jaunty courtship "dances".

Sparklemuffin and Skeletorus are the nicknames given to the eight-legged beasties by Madeline Girard, the University of California Berkeley grad student who discovered them.

Sparklemuffin was used to describe the species otherwise known as Maratus jactatus, which has brightly-coloured stripes on its abdomen.

The Maratus sceletus species has white markings on a black background, making it look a bit like a skeleton - hence the Skeletorus nickname.

While Sparklemuffin might be the more eye-catching of the two, it's Skeletorus that looks "dramatically different from all other peacock spiders known to date", according to entomologist and photographer Jürgen Otto.

"Despite the large number of species we have discovered just in the last few years, I can't help feeling that we may have just scratched the surface of this most exciting group of spiders, and that nature has quite a few more surprises in store," he toldLive Science.

In addition to looking fabulous, both spiders also perform the characteristic mating "dance", in which they raise one limb into the air and waggle their colourful tail-flap in a bid to lure the ladies.

[Via Mirror]