Colour-blind scientist realises he has discovered a new species of spider only after posting pictures online

Web users were struck by tiny arachnid's bright orange and turquoise markings

A scientist discovered a new kind of dancing peacock spider but did not realise until he posted photos online, and web users caught sight of its extraordinary colouring.

Biologist Jurgen Otto is partially colour-blind, so when he spotted the tiny arachnid while out searching for a separate creature he “didn’t think much of it” because it looked very similar to other kinds he had previously seen.

He was combing an area of southern West Australia last autumn for examples of a different spider found by environmental consultant David Knowles, in 1994, when he came across the species he has now named Maratus unicup.

The spider is just a few millimetres in size, and when performing its courtship dance it raises its third pair of legs and its brightly-coloured abdomen. Its orange and turquoise stripes have a striking symmetry.

The name is derived from Lake Unicup, where it was found.

“There was quite a reaction to photographs of it on the internet, with people saying it’s beautiful,” Dr Otto told The Guardian.

Mr Knowles had nicknamed the elusive other species the “hokey pokey” spider after its highly energetic dance during which it twisted its abdomen. He was unable to secure a specimen for classification during his original 1994 expedition, Australian media reported.

It took three further trips to rediscover the hokey pokey, which is rather more drab than its cousin but features elongated plumes on its abdomen.

In a new paper describing both it and Maratus unicup, Dr Otto names the hokey pokey Maratus tortus.

“When I first saw the display I really thought this, for me was the most interesting of the peacock spider displays I had seen, and I’d seen quite a few now,” he told ABC.

There are dozens of species of peacock spider – up to 70, according to the paper by Dr Otto and his colleague David Hill.