The males of the species Jotus remus, a jumping spider, spend countless hours waving heart shaped (ok, that might be poetic licence) paddle legs to entice prospective mates.

As many can attest, finding a mate can be a tricky endeavour, but for male spiders, it can also be deadly. To avoid being attacked, Jotus remus plays a game first to find a receptive, non-aggressive female.

The male positions himself on the opposite side of a leaf to a female, and starts sticking a paddle out from underneath and waving it at her. When the female tries to spring on what she thinks is prey, the male darts across to the other side, and repeats the paddle action.

The whole procedure is for males to find a female that stops attacking him hence showing that she’s interested in being more than spider acquaintances. And they say romance is dead.

This species was discovered last year (2015) in New South Wales by Jürgen Otto of the Australian Department of Agriculture in Sydney.

-Jean

Gif created from a youtube video by Jurgen Otto which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiwPkjpYpA

(Source: facebook.com)