My handsome guy <3
The tarantula formerly known as B. smithi ;)

Showing off his fresh look

(Actually my beautiful girl — see comment below!)
How can you tell between boy and girl? Mine molted about a month back, but I don't know how to decipher a molt yet. :(
 
@Kayti you need to grab the molt while it is still fresh or be very careful not to tear it while unfolding the abdominal portion once it's dry. A female's molt will have a "pocket" between the anterior pair of lungs. You can see that this is absent from my T's molt below:
 
Thanks for the tips! I'm pretty sure mine is female, but your pic + my T looked very very similar!
 
@Kayti it turns out I didn’t know! :embarrassed: I was CERTAIN my B. hamorii was a male, but it turns out that the sexual characteristics had not yet developed even by this size (at least not that I can see!) and it was not until two molts later that I found unmistakable evidence of spermatheca:

Now I’m questioning the species — I always thought their colors more vivid than most photos of B. hamorii and credited that to their being male (so I had heard) but now looking at the vivid red-orange knees and the coloring of the cephalothorax, I’m thinking they are probably B. smithi (ex auratum)...
 

Media information

Category
Brachypelma
Added by
ErinM31
Date added
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782
Comment count
5
Rating
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Device
Apple iPhone 5c
Aperture
ƒ/2.4
Focal length
4.1 mm
Exposure time
1/20
ISO
160
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
IMG_2163.JPG
File size
2.5 MB
Date taken
Sun, 02 July 2017 5:10 PM
Dimensions
3264px x 2448px

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