Ever notice something in the spider room?

[Vidaro]

Has anyone ever thought that the spiders might seek for the perfect weather condition to molt? I mean if u have two spiders that like it dry they should seek for similar weather conditions to get into moolt and when the perfect condition comes they go into molt, abd since they are the same type they should molt about the same time.
Some ppl say animals can sence weather changes in the air.

btw this is just a random thought i find making sense. Ive thought about it before.

 

[jazaman]

Yeah I`ve noticed it too......also thay always seem to start climbing the glass at the same time for no apparent reason!!!!

 

[Arachn'auQuébec]

I am extremely sceptic.

Theraphosids are predators that rely on their "invisibility" a lot. They are as odorless, air temperature, immobile and silent as they could be. This is for a good reason: they rely on this invisibility to hunt and avoid predators.

Over the milions of years of evolution this family has gone through, those that emmited a signature of some sort had a higher probability of being predated or to loose preys. Over these years the frequency of the alleles(spelling?) responsible for any signature gradually disapeared from the population.

Another possibility is that they never had any signature, that they have evolved from an organism that already had that particularity. Wichever way they took to get there does not really matters, the point is that they need this invisibility, since evolution pushed them there.

Any signal sent during a molt is really unlikely to be a favorised mutation, since it is the moment the Tarantula is the more vulnerable to any form of predation (including other tarantulas), and therefore counts the most on its odorless, ambient temperature, immobile and silent cloaking.

To accept to loose this cloaking, there would have to be a pretty big benefit to "fitness" (contribution in offsprings to the next generations) in
sending a message of any sort during a molt, to balance the negative effects of being detectable. I just can't see what it could be.

Powerfeeding and right temperatures shorten the time between molts, increasing the total number of molts over a given period of time, thus increasing the odd of having many molting in a week, or on a full moon, or at your birthday, or the day you met the girl of you life.

I'd bet its a coincidence

 

[Randomhero148]

jazaman, Randomhero148, jeepinwu2 - go play with yourselves if you cant add constructive insight here. screw off!

I know they wont shut up now, and personally I'm done with this thread thanks to them. I've enjoyed hearing that I'm not the only one that has experienced this, and I would love to learn more about it, but I dont think this environment is any more conducive to learning than high school with jackasses like the above mentioned chiming in with much, much, much less than .02 worth.

If anyone really DOES know a reason for it (mass sheddings, not jackasses), please PM me as I would love to know.

Not only is my B.Bohemei molting but my A.Hentzi is too. So this is what the thread is about, I am on the subject, Your the one who's out of place for this thread. YOU have no real constructive argument, just because you wanna talk trash and ask someone to PM if they knew? This thread is 5 pages long.. You didnt have to reply by asking if someone knows to PM you. This would of been covered a long time ago. So in all actuality your the one wasting our time. I have 2 tarantulas molting right now, I was saying it was raining last night and the humidity might have triggerd 2 molts..

HOW ABOUT FROM NOW KEEP YOUR OPINIONS TO YOURSELF UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING RELATED TO THE SUBJECT OR SOMETHING POSTIVE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE THREAD RATHER THAN TALKIN SH... AND ASKING A STUPID QUESTION LIKE "DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THIS HAPPENS".. WHY DO YOU THINK THE THREAD WAS STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE IDIOT!! YOUR THE ONE TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE NOT BEING CONSTRUCTIVE. TELL ME HOW WAS YOUR COMMENT CONSTRUCTIVE? GO SIT ON YOUR THUMB AND TWIDDLE IT. PEOPLE LIKE YOU PISS ME OFF!! THINK BEFORE YOU TALK NEXT TIME!

 

[Arachn'auQuébec]

I was saying it was raining last night and the humidity might have triggerd 2 molts..

I highly doubt this too, but it makes more sense than the pheromone story

 

[Randomhero148]

I highly doubt this too, but it makes more sense than the pheromone story

Yea.. If they were in the wild and tried to molt that fast after the rain they would have very wet molts...

 

[stevetastic]

last week i had a C. cyaneopubescens, P. irmina, H. lividum and P. chordatus molt.
That's a extremely arid terrestrial NW, a humid arboreal NW, a humid burrowing OW, and a arid terrestrial/arboreal/burrowing OW.

I can't believe that T's from such different areas with different habits could all have the SAME temp/humidity ques to molt.

Since T's are at there most vulnerable when they are molting could it be that they send out a some kind of signal to induce others to molt so that they become less of a target? Kind of like a bate ball of fish. the more animals, the more likely that the individual will survive?

 

[GrammatonCleric]

In december my B Vagans and C Fasciatum molted on the same day and this week my A. Avicularia and P. Murinis(which I just got saturday) molted on Monday! That's when I found out the Murinus has only 7 legs. Which in all honesty I hope slows him down a bit when I rehouse him this weekend! I bought him at Manassas show Sat and evidently someone just dumped them at one of the vendors, so I paid $20 for a 4" B. Albopilosum and a 3" P. Murinus with the KK's and waterbowls. The enclosures are very filthy, I picked a dozen+ old dead crickets plus at least 2 molts out of each KK.

 

[Arachn'auQuébec]

Since T's are at there most vulnerable when they are molting could it be that they send out a some kind of signal to induce others to molt so that they become less of a target? Kind of like a bate ball of fish. the more animals, the more likely that the individual will survive?

I don't see how a whole bunch of Ts molting in the same area makes it safer for each of them. However it sounds like party for the predators if you ask me...

 

[stevetastic]

I don't see how a whole bunch of Ts molting in the same area makes it safer for each of them. However it sounds like party for the predators if you ask me...

for large preadators maybe... for smaller ones who only eat 1 or 2 it would help a lot if your neighbor got munched and you got passed by.

 

[8legedemily]

I think it has a lot to do with growth rates and feeding schedules. I tend to feed bunches of T's at once, so it would make sense for them to molt at roughly the same times.

I have 26 T's and feed them at the same time.So they usually molt around the same time.

 

[G. pulchra]

Interesting, I've never seen that in my collection :?

 

[jb7741]

Last week I had all 5 of my obts molt on the same day. One day later my avic avic molted.

Granted the obts were sac mates, but as far as feeding, I have noticed that not all of them are good eaters. 1 of my obts is an absolute trash can, 3 will eat pretty good and the other doesn't eat frequently at all. Also all are kept at the same temp.

I did notice in the obt group that all molt on the same day(sometimes 2 days apart) but they are different sizes. The trash can is a good deal bigger than the others.

Here is a group from last week. One of the molts was shredded, so I just threw it away with no pic.

I don't have a theory. I have no idea if this is coincidence. I just thought it was an interesting topic. I also only have slings, so they tend to molt fairly often anyway.

 

[LadyPharaoh]

Us too. . .

My 3.5" female B. vagans molted Thursday, the 2" female P. formosa last night and the 2" female B. smithi, 3" female GBB and both A. versicolor slings look like they're ready to go any time.

One of the G. rosea slings hasn't eaten in a while - doesn't appear premolt but she could surprise me.

 

[Arachn'auQuébec]

for large preadators maybe... for smaller ones who only eat 1 or 2 it would help a lot if your neighbor got munched and you got passed by.

And what if your neighbor just bit the predator and ran for its life? or bit and got munched? or was too much of a wimp and got munched even if not molting?

All of these possibilities sounds a lot better for any molting T than if the predator just eats as much as it can until it's full lol.

 

[Franklin]

Ha, i think its purely coincidence, but would like to think its a conspiracy or something!

 

[Eggy]

If you have several molts about the same time and the t's are all from one sack then its one thing.

But from Saturday - Tuesday i had 4 that molted out of 23 speciments.

I think it might have something to do with High pressure and low pressure.

 

[Arachnosold1er]

My Ts will only molt when there is a storm moving through. I m pretty sure it has to do with the drop in barometric pressure and rise in humidity. Ts lose a lot of moisture while molting so maybe they know that when the pressure drops a storm is coming and there will be rain resulting in an increase of humidity.