In case you missed it, peacock spiders are the new internet sensation. Biologist Jurgen Otto has made a hobby of discovering and studying these little beauties. Here’s his most popular video, which has more than 5 million views.

The Guardian has put together this video featuring several of them.

Why are they called peacock spiders?

Have a look at this peacock.

Even though they’re both animals, birds and spiders could hardly be more different. But these birds and spiders have very similar solutions to the same problem. Male peacock spiders and peacocks both do their fancy dance to attract a female.

We humans think they’re pretty cool too.

 

MORE:

Why we should love spiders: http://theconversation.com/spiders-are-a-treasure-trove-of-scientific-wonder-51048

Article on peacock spiders (without the hype): http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(14)00591-0

The plain female spider can be seen right at the end of the first video. It’s the male with all the colour and pizzazz. The same goes for peafowls (peacocks are male, peahens are female).

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