E12: New Species— of peacock spider named after a famous fish

Joseph Schubert is the Legacy Registration Officer for Entomology and Arachnology at Museums Victoria in Australia. He talks to us about his paper published in Evolutionary Systematics in which he describes a new species of peacock spider!

We talk about why these are called “peacock” spiders, how social media platforms like Facebook are helping find new species, and how to find and collect these interesting little jumping spiders!

The title of the paper is “Maratus nemo: A new wetland species of peacock spider from South Australia (Araneae, Salticidae, Euophryini).” The paper is in the March 25th issue of the Evolutionary Systematics: https://evolsyst.pensoft.net/article/64922/ To learn more about Joseph Schubert, follow him on Twitter, @arachno_joe, or visit: https://museumsvictoria.com.au/about-us/staff/joseph-schubert/

The first video about peacock spiders by Jürgen Otto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgAbyYDFeg