7 new peacock spiders are tiny, shiny and spectacularly colourful

A Sydney scientist has discoveredseven new species of the tiny Australian peacock spider aspectacularly coloured, three-millimetre arachnid that dances toattract a female mate.

Jurgen Otto, with the help of colleague David Knowles, madethe two latest discoveries of the miniature creatures while
looking for other spiders in Western Australia in November andhad all seven named in the scientific journal Peckhamia lastmonth.

They are cute, they are colourful, theyremind people of their own cat.- JurgenOtto, scientist

"They are very, very colourful, they often have iridescentscales and they do something quite remarkable. They perform acourtship dance for females, to impress them," Otto told ReutersTV on Monday.

While footage of the dances is proving popular online, somefemale peacock spiders end up eating the colourful males if theyare not impressed by the courtship.

The discovery of the new spiders means there are now 48known species, found mostly in southern Australia and whichrange in size from three to five millimetres. Juveniles measurejust half-a-millimetre.

The Sydney scientist, who studies mites during the day,developed a passion for the tiny spiders in 2005 after
discovering an arachnid on a photograph he took following a bushwalk in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, New South Wales.

Otto said the dancing spiders, who offer no threat tohumans, were even proving popular with arachnophobes.

"They are harmless, they are cute, they are colourful, theyremind people of their own cat. I often compare them with
kittens with too many legs, so really people get excited whenthey see them," he said.

"People who hate spiders confess that they actually can'thelp loving these ones and in time this will just change the
opinions people have of spiders, I hope."