Can tarantulas tell their webs from other T's webs apart?

[Christian Jocson]

Thought came across my mind this morning when I was rehousing some T's.

I recently sold a subadult male p.metallica who had a really neat enclosure. He made all these cool tunnels and even webbed all around his live plant like Halloween decoration (no sperm webs). The thought of putting my juvenile female p.metallica in there crossed my mind for a second, but I ultimately decided to give her her own brand new set up.

Back to the question. Do T's use one of the five senses (or possibly more) to tell webs apart? Could there possibly be some of their DNA in the webbing like the DNA strands found in our hair, nails, saliva and etc?

discuss

 

[Moakmeister]

I would think they could smell the web and know it isn't theirs.

 

[EulersK]

They absolutely can, yes. A common practice before pairing is to take the female's webbing and place it in the male's enclosure to get him in the mood. So they certainly have their own pheromones on the webbing. Now, this is likely not the webbing itself but rather the webbing simply holds the chemicals. That part is just speculation, however.

When I rehouse, I make all attempts to keep some of their old webbing to place into the new enclosure. This helps them settle in much quicker. When I recently rehoused my M. balfouri communal, I kept the same cork flats (covered in webbing) in the new enclosure. They all settled in overnight rather than roaming for days like they did the first time.

 

[FishermanSteve]

I believe each t has their own pheromone so they can distinguish their webs

 

[Abyss]

They absolutely can, yes. A common practice before pairing is to take the female's webbing and place it in the male's enclosure to get him in the mood. So they certainly have their own pheromones on the webbing. Now, this is likely not the webbing itself but rather the webbing simply holds the chemicals. That part is just speculation, however.

When I rehouse, I make all attempts to keep some of their old webbing to place into the new enclosure. This helps them settle in much quicker. When I recently rehoused my M. balfouri communal, I kept the same cork flats (covered in webbing) in the new enclosure. They all settled in overnight rather than roaming for days like they did the first time.

Agree fully, i have heard that ALOt about breeding and i think it was @Viper who first suggested i do that very thing in reguards to my currently going P. met breeding attempt.