Maratus volans, : Zabka, 1991

Otto, Jürgen C. & Hill, David E., 2021, Catalogue of the Australian peacock spiders, Peckhamia 148 (4), pp. 1-35 : 28

The volans group

This group contains two of the most colourful peacock spiders, both from eastern Australia. Males of both species have a large, fringed fan with distinctive figures comprised of pigmented scales on a background of iridescent scales. Courtship display of both is similar, but M. volans displays with both legs III behind the fan, and M. elephans with one leg III in front of the fan and one leg III behind it. M. volans is widely distributed along the east coast of Australia and is easily the best-known of all peacock spiders. The species name volans relates to the fact that Pickard-Cambridge (1874) was told that this spider used its flaps to fly (although he also guessed that they had a "sexual" function). A black and white sketch of a Maratus volans specimen was figured in an early guide to flying animals of the British Museum (Ridewood 1912). This was the only peacock spider featured in a popular guide to Australian spiders by Mascord (1970), who still thought that it might fly.