I know this post is damn old but for the sake of the poor uneducated and misinformed folks out there that might stumble across this and think that the way michael identifies the sex of a tarantula is a reliable way to go about it, I have to correct this absolute nonsense.
Seeing that back then michael only owned 3 tarantulas, and seemingly thinks he was better at sexing than well known Anastasia. in no way can you identify the sex of a tarantula dorsally, via abdomen size, carapace shape or the closeness of the chelicerae, unless it's a mature male. Which the specimen in the photo is NOT. This is one of the worst ways to sex a tarantula. Aboreals have notably larger footpads than terrestrials, especially on the pedipalps, it's what helps them to climb. Why the palps seems large to michael because he only ever owned terrestrials before and never seemed to know the difference. Those are normal aboreal footpads on the pedipalps, there is absolutely no presence of boxing gloves or embolus, meaning the sex can go both ways. The best way to identify sex is searching for epiandrous fussilae or spermathecae via the exuvium.
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