Thanks to the Guardian for this reminder that nature is generous, bestowing vibrant colors in the most unexpected places:

Two new peacock spiders identified in Western Australia

Biologist Jürgen Otto and colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily colourful dancing spiders

It is only a few millimetres in size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.

But when biologist Jürgen Otto first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he didn’t immediately recognise how special it was.

Knowles and Otto have returned to the site several times and were finally able to capture specimens of the spider last year…