B. smithi / B. emilia

[ShadowBlade]

1. YES, I have sexed 0.5'' slings accurately through a scope. They were very slow growing species, such as B.klaasi and desert Aphonopelma sp.. These spiders where maybe .33'' when I received them, and three to four molts later finally reached .5''(maybe even shrank on one particular molt). This would have given sufficient time for some type of sexual organ development.

Not to deny anyone's credibility here.. But were these like deliberately underfed and starved spiders to try and keep them that small for molts? Like an experiment? They should have doubled in size molting at that age..

-Sean

 

[JC]

Not to deny anyone's credibility here.. But were these like deliberately underfed and starved spiders to try and keep them that small for molts? Like an experiment? They should have doubled in size molting at that age..

-Sean

Sean,

Yes and no. I do not feed my long term collection group like most hobbyists would. I feed them according to abdomen size. I sorta try to keep them on a more realistic/natural calorie intake. Give them enough scraps to get them to their next molt. They are not fat, but are not starving at all. And no, not all slings will necessarily double in growth on early molts. Post molt size is mostly depended, as you hinted, on calorie intake, but also species.

Are you experience with desert species? And I don't mean already 4'' adults, I mean different Aphonopelma sp. at starting at 2nd instars. Although my feeding regimen will allow fast metabolisms of spiders such as L.parahybana to double up in size after molts at times, their abdomens are significantly smaller in comparison to my desert sp, spiders, which, although will barley grow at all, will remain with a good sized abdomen and seem unfazed by the molt or low food intake.

Three or four molts to go from a third of an inch to half an inch? Over what timeframe? Even Brachypelma and Aphonopelma are going to show more growth than that.

Joe,

They took a long time to molt. At .33'', it took about 1.5 months to reach .45'', then 2 months for about .5''-.6''(Aphonopelma sp.)

The Brachypelma klaasi had the same growth except it went from .45'' back to .38, then up to about .66''.(Yes I felt cheated that day)

Temperature: ~72F

I have also never (in my experience) seen a spider lose size after a molt.

Well, I guess you learn something new everyday: http://www.atshq.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25702&p=186961

I am sure there are a lot more reports like these. It took me 2 mins to find this link(only because I'm nice like that), but I'm sure the majority of these are Aphonpelma sp. or other slow growing and arid climate species.

Also can a Theraphosa fan take this one? I know some of you T.blondi hardcores have been disappointed at one point or another after measuring adult your 'prized giant', only to have it molt out smaller some point later.

What exactly is 'sufficient time of sexual organ development'?

Enough growth time to develop an obvious and easily spotted beginnings of the female's sex organ. Sorry I ment 'for' not 'of'.

I am pretty sure someone with such a setup and understanding would also be taking pictures of these .5" molts that clearly show spermathecae, yes?

One last thing to try and clarify...I acknowledge that as the spider molts and grows, so do the sex organs, etc. I suppose if someone has the perfect setup and knows exactly what to look for regarding the beginnings of sex organs, that it would be possible.

I'd still like to see pictures.

Does this task involve cash payment at the end? I don't remember stating that I had images, or even a camera for my scope. Perhaps something that I can look forward to getting from you over the upcoming winter holidays?

But as much as I'd love to have show pictures for AB, I don't have any. I don't have a scope camera at all. And I don't own a "grade 'A' " scope(I wish to keep both of my kidneys), I was using it only as an example to detail how easy it was to see it how on my Brachypelma that a noob could see it. Although my scope is equipped with different lighting bulbs, emitting different color light frequencies which helped a bit.

Aside from that I don't have any slings left even if I had a cam. The Aphonopelma I got at around .33'' a year ago is now ~1''.

---------- Post added 09-16-2011 at 03:16 AM ----------



Oh and by the way. The link I provided shows yet another oddity that will not be confined to general rules, A. paloma, which as it reports, laid a sack at only 1.5''. Making it one more candidate to possibly possess a visually identifiable spermathacae at .5''(through a scope). At .5'', it translates to about 30% of its total growth for this species. Which would be the theory equivalent of about 3'' when compared to juvenile T.blondi at 30% total growth, which do in fact posses visible spermathacae at that size.