Aphonopelma chalcodes and color

[rookiesanewb]

Heyo! I've read threads that say when an A. Chalcodes moults dark its going to be male... except, mine is very, VERY female (sold as such, ventral and moult sexed as such by myself too). She was normal chalcodes colors before, and now its been about two, three months and she's still super dark! Any one else experience this? Thank you!

Before;



After;

 

[Tarantulafeets]

Did you check its pedipalps and front legs for bulbs and tibial hooks? It could be male but it's not impossible for changes in color between molts.

 

[MattjediEdmonds]

Wow, that's a dramatic change. The second photo does look pretty "leggy". As mentioned above, have you checked to see if it is a mature male? You wouldn't be the first person to be wrong on sexing their spider.

 

[Liquifin]

Color isn't really reliant on sex, unless it's a mature male but it would be obvious by then. But other than that, saying that it's darker or lighter in color isn't really a good indicator on whether it's male or female for an A. chalcodes.

 

[rookiesanewb]

Did you check its pedipalps and front legs for bulbs and tibial hooks? It could be male but it's not impossible for changes in color between molts.

Wow, that's a dramatic change. The second photo does look pretty "leggy". As mentioned above, have you checked to see if it is a mature male? You wouldn't be the first person to be wrong on sexing their spider.

This isn't a question about her sex.

Not only is she FAR from being mature, but as I put in my original post she has been checked multiple times not just by myself. The 'leggy' appearance isnt indicative of ANYTHING and cannot be used as a determination of gender in pretty much most species. As @Liquifin stated correctly, you cant just 'look' at a tarantula and decide what it is unless it has hit maturity, so for the purpose of not derailing this thread, please no more comments about gender when shes got a gash the size of the river nile and was sold to me sexed by one of the most prolific sellers in my country AND was moult checked by me and someone with way more experience than me (though it wasn't hard to see what she was at all, even a literal newbie to moult sexing would have been able to see she was female).

To keep the thread very much on topic; anyone else have any Chalcodes or other species in its family that has done as such?

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Heyo! I've read threads that say when an A. Chalcodes moults dark its going to be male... except, mine is very, VERY female (sold as such, ventral and moult sexed as such by myself too). She was normal chalcodes colors before, and now its been about two, three months and she's still super dark! Any one else experience this? Thank you!

Before;

View attachment 403635

After;

View attachment 403636

I bought a 3.5 inch dls A. chalcodes that was 'supposedly' female that was told to me. I got only one molt from it and when it did molt it was a 5 inch mature male. When it hooked out, (matured) it did not sport the colors from your second photo.

Regardless of your gender claim, (not covering that right now) I have never seen one in that dark chocolate color before and I love it. It has sparked my interest ALOT!

A few things I will add:
1. Ventral sexing is not 100% accurate. I never accept anything other than molt sexed which then that is considered confirmed.
2. Free handling your T comes with consequences. Not going into it but I do encourage you to research here on AB why that is.

My first photo is of my A. chalcodes when I bought it. The second photo is from a fresh molt back in April, (it's still alive, YAY!). You can see the color difference on a mature male. I believe you 100% yours is female. That dark chocolate color has me wanting to buy a bunch more of these T's now.

 

[rookiesanewb]

I bought a 3.5 inch dls A. chalcodes that was 'supposedly' female that was told to me. I got only one molt from it and when it did molt it was a 5 inch mature male. When it hooked out, (matured) it did not sport the colors from your second photo.

Regardless of your gender claim, (not covering that right now) I have never seen one in that dark chocolate color before and I love it. It has sparked my interest ALOT!

A few things I will add:
1. Ventral sexing is not 100% accurate. I never accept anything other than molt sexed which then that is considered confirmed.
2. Free handling your T comes with consequences. Not going into it but I do encourage you to research here on AB why that is.

My first photo is of my A. chalcodes when I bought it. The second photo is from a fresh molt back in April, (it's still alive, YAY!). You can see the color difference on a mature male. I believe you 100% yours is female. That dark chocolate color has me wanting to buy a bunch more of these T's now.

I don't accept ventral sexing as 100% either, I moult sex with a micro lens and lighting.

Has yours got red on the back of it or is that just lighting? There are so many 'variations' of the aphonopelma desert variety that actually exist, and some are far darker than chalcodes! I'm a sucker for 'brown' tarantulas and the long lives in this family line make them one of my fav T's in the hobby. I've been doing some digging and apparently this family in particular is prone to random color changes, I'm with you, if they werent so rare in my country I'd have more!

I do wonder if because they are so long lived if her dark colors will 'fade' to look typical after a while.

EDIT; Wow mature male chalchodes really do have that blonde carapace with red on the bum. So pretty! Yeah my girl has just turned... completely black

 

[Arachnophobphile]

I don't accept ventral sexing as 100% either, I moult sex with a micro lens and lighting.

Has yours got red on the back of it or is that just lighting? There are so many 'variations' of the aphonopelma desert variety that actually exist, and some are far darker than chalcodes! I'm a sucker for 'brown' tarantulas and the long lives in this family line make them one of my fav T's in the hobby. I've been doing some digging and apparently this family in particular is prone to random color changes, I'm with you, if they werent so rare in my country I'd have more!

I do wonder if because they are so long lived if her dark colors will 'fade' to look typical after a while.

EDIT; Wow mature male chalchodes really do have that blonde carapace with red on the bum. So pretty! Yeah my girl has just turned... completely black

Here in the U.S. I've yet to see a female A. chalcodes in the dark brown color yours is for sale. I've only seen the captive bred ones for sale by breeders that are the color of yours from the first photo.

I don't live where these T's do so never seen any in the wild. I would rely on the more experienced members that do know in that regards.

My second photo of my MM A. chalcodes was taken the next day after it's molt. The abdomen was a vibrant red. I said 'what the hell it's as red as my T. vagan's abdomen'. The carapace was tan and golden. I took the photo with no added light source than the room's light.

Now that was back in April. Those colors have dulled out alot. I'm at work so I can't take a photo of what the T currently looks like. I am hoping he can at least survive until April next year but I'm well aware that any day is his last. I really really loved this T and didn't get much time with him.

If you expand my profile photo you will see him before he matured out. He was quite the entertainer. For a week maybe a little longer he would come out of his burrow, rest sideways for quite some time then right himself back up and go into his burrow. I thought ohhh he's gonna molt, nope....

A. hentzi is the one that gets darker than A. chalcodez in the U.S. I'm sure there's more. I don't want to speculate here. Off the top of my head, half out of it at work all I can think of is A. hentzi but I know there is more.

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

It is not unusual for any tarantula to change the shade of its color between molts, sometimes very dramatically, and is not indicative of the spider's sex or the presence of a health problem. More often than not, a tarantula young enough will change back to normal color after another molt or two. In my own collection, I have a very old Aphonopelma anax that changed from typical brown/ grey/ black color to nearly all black, then back to normal color, and now its so old it has stayed mostly very dark brown to black. It doesn't even look like an Aphonopelma anax anymore.

I documented the first occurrence of my A. anax changing color in a post here from 2015.

An Example of Extreme Color Differences in an Aphonopelma sp.

Here are two pictures of the exact same mature female Aphonopelma sp. collected from south central Texas, near Austin, showing an extreme color difference in the same specimen. The picture where it has a brown coloration was taken in 2005. The black coloration appeared about two weeks ago...

arachnoboards.com