New species of jumping spider found in Thirroul backyard

But it wasn't until 18 months later, when the spider turned up again, that the critter was properly discovered.

Amanda De George, of Thirroul in Wollongong, NSW, is a keen backyard zoologist, and first came across the jumping spider on her recycling bin about 18 months ago, and while she took some pictures of it, she " didn't really think anything more about it".

That is, until June this year, when she saw it again, this time on her deck umbrella. With a macro lens attached to her camera, Ms De George was able to clearly identify its bright blue face - undescribed so far among the jumping spider genus Jotus.

Native critters are a keen interest for Ms De George, who runs the Backyard Zoology website, so she set about trying to identify what she thought was a rare Jotus.

"With that bright blue face I really wanted to know what he was, especially as I was going to post about him later that day and I try to give IDs wherever I can," she told the Mercury.

She posted the pictures on a spider identification page on Facebook a couple of hours later.

"The taxonomist who works on that particular spider family [Joseph Schubert] is a member of that group and loads of people were excitedly tagging him and he was the one who let me know that it was a species new to science."

With great care she mailed the spider to Mr Schubert at Museums Victoria. He is now caring for it as a review of the Jotus genus is undertaken - which will now include the blue-face critter. As for its name, that would be up to Mr Schubert - but Ms De George wouldn't say no.

She admits she used to be quite scared of arachnids, but Jotus are "the puppy dogs of the spider world".

"I reckon once you take the time to watch and learn about an animal, it's pretty hard not to love them, no matter what they are. Jumping spiders are so full of personality, super curious and often jump on the camera. How could you not love that?