[2] Maratus species are small spiders, with a total body length mostly around 4–5 mm (0.2 in), sometimes smaller, with a high degree of sexual dimorphism.

They are known as peacock spiders, based on the peacock-like display of the dorsal (upper) surface of the abdomen (opisthosoma) of the males, on which there is a "plate" or "fan" of usually brightly colored and highly iridescent scales and hairs, often forming patterns in which the foreground colors contrast with the iridescent background.

If the male continues his dance when the female is not interested, she will often attempt to attack, kill, and feed on him; she may also do this after mating (sexual cannibalism).

[11] Male palpal bulbs are relatively simple in appearance, with a circular embolus, and are rather similar in different species.

[2] In contrast to the brightly coloured and distinctive males, females are cryptic or camouflaged in appearance, with mottled patterns of whitish and brownish scales.

[2] Male Maratus species mostly display the brilliantly coloured upper surface of their abdomen, often with extensions and fringes, to the females in courtship dances.

The nanostructures are embedded in flat, convex, sac-like scales, amplifying reflected light, according to University of Groningen's Doekele Stavenga.

[13] Stavenga compared Maratus colours with patterns on butterfly wings, the colors of flowers, and the feathers of the parotia bird.

The blues produced by nanostructures in Maratus do not fade over time, unlike the normal pigmenting method.

Nathan Morehouse of the University of Pittsburgh found Maratus volans have four different photoreceptors (tetrachromats) allowing them to see red, blue, green, and ultraviolet and also resolve the intricacies of the male's display designs.

[1] Karsch was a curator at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and named spiders and other animals from preserved specimens collected by others.

He described the species Maratus amabilis, the type of his new genus, on the basis of a single male specimen, whose origin was only recorded as "Australia".

His short description mentioned the abdomen being flattened and quadrangular in shape, but otherwise did not refer to the characteristic abdominal "flaps".

Zabka and Waldock continued the tradition of using Latin and Greek in the 1980s and 1990s as did Otto & Hill from 2011 on, also using a patronym for Stuart Harris in the case of Maratus harrisi.

[22] In 2017 Jurgen Otto and David Hill published a Catalogue of the Australian peacock spiders (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryini: Maratus, Saratus) in Peckhamia,[23] having also recently erected a new genus for peacock spiders with significantly different genitalia to Maratus, being Saratus Otto & Hill, 2017.