Maratus elephans closely resembles two previously described species of Peacock Spiders, Maratus pardus, from the south coast of Western Australia and Maratus volans, which is found along the east coast of Australia from Victoria in the south to Queensland in the north. All three species have iridescent purple-blue background colours on their fans, which are fringed with white hairs, and patches of white hair on the tarsuses of their third legs, which are apparently used to make their fans look larger during parts of their courtship dance. Otto and Hill believe these three species to be closely related, and refer to them as the ‘volans-group’.