Perth Voice Interactive

PHOTOGRAPHER Russ Chambers spotted some flamboyant tiny spiders hiding in Noranda’s Lightning Swamp.

The peacock spiders are only 4mm long and he first spotted them a few years back but they’re hard to photograph without a big honking lens.

The little male critters have colourful behinds that they spread out like a fan and wiggle around in an extravagant mating dance hoping to mesmerise the ladies.

“We go out in the bush a fair bit, so most weekends we’re out somewhere, and you just notice them,” he says.

“They never sit the way you want them to! There’s a lot of time spent on your belly waiting for them to move into the right position.

“You get covered in ticks, so it’s a bit of a labour of love really.”

The local species of the critters is called maratus clupeatus and was only named a couple years back. They’re mostly around the Gnangara water mound area but could be more widespread.

If you go looking for them in Lightning Swamp, Mr Chambers advises “they like a sunny, sandy position and like to move amongst sticks and leaves, somewhere they can look down and jump on prey”.

by DAVID BELL