Peacock Spider

After reading about Maratus harrisi and its discoverer Stuart Harris (see previous story), you may wonder what became of Stuart. He became somewhat of a poster boy for citizen science, the story of a former rubbish collector searching for blue peacock spiders clearly captured people’s imaginations. Subsequently he completed a Certificate IV in environmental monitoring and ended up working for Questacon in Canberra.

You can probably guess, he did not stop looking for peacock spiders and discovered several other species afterwards. Now that “harrisi” was taken we had to find different names for them: Saratus hesperus, Maratus sapphirus and Maratus calcitrans. He also located the first live specimens of a previously unnamed species that I had only seen in alcohol.  In August 2012 I had identified two specimens as a new Maratus species when looking through the Australian Museum’s spider collection. It was no ordinary species, it was a good-looker. Among several new unnamed species I found in the collection that day, this was the only one with large flaps, similar to Maratus volans. David Hill and I could have named this spider from those preserved specimens, but after having seen what a difference live specimens would make to a species description, naming a spider from a dead preserved individual no longer appealed to me. I decided to hold off with the description until I found live individuals and could photograph the male’s display in all it’s splendour. I made five unsuccessful trips to the location where it was collected, near Tamworth. Eventually it was Stuart who delivered the goods in October 2013, on his first attempt after searching at the same location. We named this species Maratus elephans in reference to the pattern on its expanded flaps that resemble the head of an elephant with long ears and tusks and it became one of the most popular among photographers and film makers.

Our documentary “Maratus: a documystery” kept winning awards at major film festivals and even made it into the online entertainment program of an airline. Together with the producer Simon Cunich, Stuart and I subsequently did a mini tour through regional New South Wales where we showed the film in local cinemas and fielded questions afterwards from the audience. These were tiny places and there was a very intimate feel which I enjoyed.  I really appreciate Stuart’s unwavering support over the years and his good sense of humour. 

In mid 2012 Stuart approached me with the idea of producing a peacock spider calendar. I could see where he was coming from, lots of people like calendars and it was a way of publicising the spiders and, if things went well, even making a little bit of money. At the very least we would have a few calendars to give away as a Christmas present to friends and supporters. However, I was quite reluctant. It all sounded like far too much work for too little reward. Just with one of my videos I could reach millions of people, so why produce a calendar which would only reach a couple of hundred people at best? And then there was the cost and associated risk. What if none of the calendars sold? Still, there wasn’t a peacock spider calendar yet and given that Stuart was keen, I eventually gave in. 

We selected one species for each month, and an additional thumbnail image to be inserted in the dates section. Maratus harrisi of course was on the cover, it was the spider that symbolised our collaboration, and we also added a small photograph showing both of us searching for Maratus harrisi. The calendar was entitled “Peacock spiders – jewels of the Australian bush”. We added a sentence or two for each species to explain what was shown in the photograph and had a little blurb on the back about our work and collaboration. Stuart had sussed out a suitable design and had a printer that he had some positive experience with. The quote to produce 500 copies was $4000, not a small amount to lose even if it was shared between us. It all went smoothly and eventually the copies arrived in the mail. The title page looked very nice, but most of the photographs had strange streaks. Everything needed to be reprinted.  

When the second lot arrived they looked better and now we could start selling them. Most of that was done by Stuart, thankfully. He was very good at it, and so dedicated. If you read the previous story you won’t be too surprised to hear that. I wonder where he gets his enthusiasm and energy from. A bit like a German shepherd dog, once he gets his teeth into something he doesn’t let go. He even devoted several weekends selling them at a Canberra market in sunshine and in rain. Selling calendars proved to be at least as tough as I had expected, very time consuming. Bit by bit though, the copies sold and Stuart provided regular updates. I also found a few interested people, mostly among my colleagues and it was actually surprising to me how popular they became. Believe it or not, even the Canberra Times wrote about our calendar and long before Christmas all copies were gone. Not only did we get our investment back, we even managed to make a bit of money from it, but think twice if you want to get rich from calendar sales, it won’t work! 

 Stuart and I had put aside 50 copies of the calendar for our own private uses, as give-aways for friends. I couldn’t think of many people to give them to. Those I knew had already bought a copy. So I wondered what else I could do with them? What about sending them to some celebrities? I knew they had a lot of influence, and if they got excited about peacock spiders and tweeted or posted about them surely a whole lot more people would become aware. Way to go!

 Getting celebrities’ addresses is rather difficult. You never know whether what you find on google is real, and whether it would ever get you past some kind of agent who would just throw everything that comes through the mail straight in the bin. I couldn’t be too choosy so I wrote to whatever address I could find. Sometimes the calendar couldn’t be delivered and came back and I had to find another address. What a waste of postage. I didn’t have a set list of people I wanted to write to, rather I sent one calendar to whoever came to my mind on a particular day, rather adhoc. Sometimes I was influenced by the music I was listening to on that day, a TV series I watched, or movies I had seen.  I was also thinking about who could possibly have an interest in these spiders, either by way of being Australian, having visited Australia, or being interested in nature or animals in general. For example, I picked John Travolta for being an ambassador for the Australian airline Qantas, Joel Madden for wanting to becoming an Australian and seeing him on “The Voice”, the Queen obviously for her importance as being our head of state, Princess Mary of Denmark for having grown up in Australia and Emperor Akihito of Japan for being a frequent visitor to Australia and very interested in its fauna. There was a rationale for each of them even though the list may appear pretty random when you look at it.   

So here are those I remember sending the calendars to, though I may have forgotten a couple. Actors: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Geoffrey Rush, Helen Mirren and John Travolta. Musicians:  Birdy, Lady Gaga, Joel Madden and Keith Urban. Tennis players: Roger Feder, Maria Sharapova and Lleyton Hewitt. Politicians and heads of states:  Bob Brown, Angela Merkel, Princess Mary of Denmark, Emperor Akihito of Japan, the Dalai Lama, President Obama, Vladimir Putin, the Queen, prime minister Julia Gillard and the governor of New South wales Professor Marie Bashir. Others: Bindy Irwin, Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Miranda Kerr.  If that all seems like a very odd collection of people to you, you are not wrong. Looking at it myself now I feel slightly embarrassed by my selection and if doing this today, that list would look substantially different, I promise! For starters I would exclude the US president. Imagine him tweeting about peacock spiders? He probably would say he discovered them. 

The calendars were in A3 format, quite large. I had to protect them from being folded by cutting out similar-sized pieces of rigid cardboard. I chose wrapping paper that I hoped would be reasonably tasteful and finished off with some nice ribbons around it. I included a letter I tailored for each recipient, often stating the particular reason I chose to send the calendar. 

Every couple of days I went to the post office during my lunch break, posting another few calendars. The lady behind the counter was quite amused by it all. When she looked at all the different addresses first she thought I was a famous person and these were all my friends. The postage turned out to be rather expensive. Of course I selected the fastest and most secure shipment method and with such a bulky item that translates into a hefty price tag. In the end I spent way more than $1000 on postage, but I considered it a good investment. Even if nobody was writing back to me or posting about them on facebook or twitter, there was a chance that quietly they were enjoying my gift and at least take note of these beautiful Australian spiders. 

Only a small number of the people I wrote to responded, but that made those that did stand out. I heard back from Bob Brown, Bindy Irwin, Professor Bashir, the Queen, Angela Merkel, Princess Mary, John Travolta and Hugh Jackman. Some sent me signed books and photographs, or personal letters, even handwritten ones, and these now form a nice little collection of memorabilia that has a special place in my filing cabinet. Nobody madly tweeted or posted about peacock spiders as a result, so in that regard it didn’t meet my expectations. But on the whole it was a fun thing to do, something that I look back to now with a smile on my face.