Double molt?? help please

[Bjorgly]

Hi,

Someone has e-mailed me with a tarantula question i cannot answer, i am hoping all of you can help. I am not sure if this is urgent or not so i assume it is urgent just incase. She said that her rosehair molted about a month ago (i think its 3 or 4 inches so not a baby) and she came home one night and found it on it's back and it had spun a web around the lower portion of its body. Could she be molting again as she fed it quite well? do tarantulas ever double molt? is something wrong? is it a male tarantula and spinning a sperm web?

any help/insight at all much appreciated

Thanks!

Mark

 

[Code Monkey]

I'm thinking sperm web due to the "around the lower body" part of the description. Many Ts spin a hammock type web for moulting, but it's an all body hammock. On the other hand, that description fits a newly moulted male's behaviour perfectly.

 

[Bjorgly]

Thanks CM, i will pass the info onto her, i suspected a sperm web but i was not at all sure. I did not know they flipped onto their backs to do this either.

Mark

 

[Code Monkey]

Don't ask me about the origins of that one, seems about the most complicated way to do it. The male spins a sheet of silk above the ground, gets underneath of it, spins some specialised silk from the spinnerets near his genital slit, deposits sperm on it, then wriggles his way down and loads his palps, all the while on his back.

 

[arachnopunks]

Originally posted by Code Monkey
Don't ask me about the origins of that one, seems about the most complicated way to do it. The male spins a sheet of silk above the ground, gets underneath of it, spins some specialised silk from the spinnerets near his genital slit, deposits sperm on it, then wriggles his way down and loads his palps, all the while on his back.

The complexity has always bewildered me as well. It is literally like going around your elbow to get to your you know what. I find myself giggling when I try to explain it to people sometimes. I gotta get a photo next time I catch one in the act to make it easier.

 

[Gail]

Originally posted by Code Monkey
Don't ask me about the origins of that one, seems about the most complicated way to do it. The male spins a sheet of silk above the ground, gets underneath of it, spins some specialised silk from the spinnerets near his genital slit, deposits sperm on it, then wriggles his way down and loads his palps, all the while on his back.

Yes, it is so strange - makes you wonder what possible evolutionary forces were at work that would cause this type of behavior to develope. I mean really, wouldn't it be so much easier to just do it on the ground? Maybe it's some sort of kinky turn on for the male spiders LOL - like they need the hairs on their back to be rubbed to stimulate sperm production or something he, he

Gail

 

[MrDeranged]

Originally posted by Code Monkey
Don't ask me about the origins of that one, seems about the most complicated way to do it. The male spins a sheet of silk above the ground, gets underneath of it, spins some specialised silk from the spinnerets near his genital slit, deposits sperm on it, then wriggles his way down and loads his palps, all the while on his back.

Actually, the few times I've seen it, they deposit the sperm in the sperm web while upside down, then they climb on top of it to load their palps. IME the whole experience is not on their back...



Scott

 

[Code Monkey]

Oh yeah, I have seen shots of the little freaks on top of their web reaching under. Which is even more bizarre if you want my opinion

I think the behaviour of male tarantulas is proof that they were designed by a government committee.