B. albopilosum sling imminent moult or death???

[kosh]

last night i was feeding my curly hair slings....i got to the last one and it was laying on the substrate all stretched out....its abdomen is very dark like it is in premoult.......anyway, i was watching the sling for a minute or so and noticed it wasn't moving and its posture looked rather odd (all spread out upright and flat on the substrate)........i know if it was getting ready to moult that i shouldn't disturb it but, being as there was no web pad and the spider was upright, i decided to give it a nudge with my chopsticks.....well the spider did not respond at all....i nudged it a little further and it appeared to be dead and it was stiff and not responding to stimuli.......well after a minute or so i noticed very slight movements and the spider moved a little but it seemed VERY sluggish.....so i just figured it was getting ready to moult and i should leave it the heck alone (and i was hoping i hadn't disturbed it too much in premoult)..........i misted ever so slightly to increase humidity in the container and i figured that it would have moulted overnight but when i got up this morning the spider had NOT moulted and was up and around acting as if nothing had happened........anyone ever experienced this?? i was thinking if the spider was this far along in the moult process (being so slow, stiff and all) that it should have had a moult web pad layed down already.....could the sling have been asleep, sick, premoult, or playing possum????

please dont flame me for disturbing a premoult spider.....i already know the general do's and don'ts about premoult spiders....i was really assuming the thing was dead or well on its way to spider valhalla..........

 

[Mendi]

Sounds like molting behavior to me... I've found a couple of mine before laying on their back in molting position only to have changed their mind about molting, they ultimately did molt with in a couple days though. Hopefully all is fine with yours and there's no spider valhalla in the near future for it

 

[kosh]

well..........it figures......i got home from work tonight and the darned thing had moulted.....now i feel bad for messing with it in the first place........it sure looked dead last night though.....is it normal for them to get like that even before they build a web pad or turn over??

 

[skadiwolf]

without fail a dying T will curl (actually, any spider) its legs underneath it, looking like it's sitting on them.

unless your spider/T is doing this, it should be fine.