Animal Behavior Specialist Talks About the Elaborate Mating Dance of the Peacock Spider

The web series Science Friday spoke with Madeline Girard, an animal behavior specialist at University of California at Berkeley, who talked about the elaborate mating dance of the peacock spider and how the dance varies among the different species of maratus.

With their ornately-colored bodies, rhythmic pulsations, and booty-shaking dance moves, male peacock spiders attract the attention of spectating females as well as researchers. One such animal behavior specialist, Madeline Girard, collected more than 30 different peacock spider species from the wilds of Australia and brought them back to her lab at UC Berkeley. Under controlled conditions, she recorded their unique dances in the hopes of deciphering what these displays actual say to a female spider and how standards differ between species.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips