When sexing ventrally, you're really looking for evidence that a specimen is male - males have a patch of short, dense setae above the anterior lip of the epigastric furrow called epiandrous fusillae that they use when producing sperm webs (hence the name of this sexing category). Here's a really good example of that - you can see the upside-down U-shaped patch of dark setae just above the vent on this one:
G. pulcrhipes--any thoughts? Photo 1 of 2. The upper book lungs look angled, but not clear. About how to interpret that black mark. 3" juvenile.
arachnoboards.com
The absence of these epiandrous fusillae usually means you have a female, but there are other characteristics that females have and males don't that you can look for, too. There are some good comparative images available out there if you search on google for ventral sexing tarantulas that point out some of the differences, but it also just takes practice.
When sexing ventrally, you're really looking for evidence that a specimen is male - males have a patch of short, dense setae above the anterior lip of the epigastric furrow called epiandrous fusillae that they use when producing sperm webs (hence the name of this sexing category). Here's a really good example of that - you can see the upside-down U-shaped patch of dark setae just above the vent on this one:
G. pulcrhipes--any thoughts? Photo 1 of 2. The upper book lungs look angled, but not clear. About how to interpret that black mark. 3" juvenile.
arachnoboards.com
The absence of these epiandrous fusillae usually means you have a female, but there are other characteristics that females have and males don't that you can look for, too. There are some good comparative images available out there if you search on google for ventral sexing tarantulas that point out some of the differences, but it also just takes practice.
Thank you so much for the detailed answer man! I love learning and am just absolutely addicted to spiders, so I can feel hours of google reading to come! Lol
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