Sparklemuffin

If you don't think of spiders as cute and cuddly, you've never met Sparklemuffin. Scientists have identified the cute arachnid as one of three new species of peacock spiders discovered in eastern Australia.

Male peacock spiders are less than a quarter-inch (five millimeters) long and are recognized for their vibrant colors and flamboyant courting ritual. These hues, like the brilliant red and blue of Sparklemuffin's stripes, make it easier to distinguish between species. However, many female peacock spiders resemble each other, even males.

The Sparklemuffin (Maratus jactatus) is a species of the genus Maratus (peacock spiders), an Australian member of the jumping spider family. They are from the jumping spider group Salticidae. The name jactatus is Latin for rocking - derived from their signature mating rituals.

The male has a bright back, while the female has one that is cryptically colored. Similar to Maratus digitatus and Maratus calcitrans, males have vivid and distinctive color patterns. Males of the Maratus jactatus differ from those of these other species by having an opisthosomal flap that covers the opisthosomal plate. They also opened the flaps that covered their inflated opisthomal plate, displaying three distinct transverse bands of red-orange to orange-pigmented scales that were "interrupted by three bold transverse bands of unusual iridescent blue scales."

They eat small insects, which tie in with their role in the ecosystem, controlling the insect population. The control of the insects can then, in turn, help with agriculture, seeing as there are not as many insects.