Freshly Molted G.pulchra

[Bjorgly]

The little guy is growing like a weed! It is almost at 3" now and I have had it since November 2002 when it was max. 1/2". I need to move it into larger quarters as well because of this molt.

Mark

 

[MrT]

Its growing so fast, makes me wonder if its a male? :?


Ernie

 

[SpiderTwin]

That thought came to mind for me too. I had heard that the G. pulchra was slower growing than that.

Were you able to get a look at the recently molted exuvia to sex it or not?

 

[Immortal_sin]

have you kept molt records? My G pulchra, which actually turned out to be G grossa, grew quite quickly, and I was suspicious from the start.
I can provide you with a molt record for comparison if you like.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Nice pic of a gorgeous G. pulchra!

Paul

 

[Tangled WWWeb]

My intention is definitely not to argue anyone else's results, but IME I have not seen concrete proof that males always grow faster than females. I have had slings of both genders that grew much faster than their siblings.

Many of you remember the L. difficilis eggsac that I had last year that was mostly destroyed by the female. I was only left with three spiderlings. These guys have now grown to be sexable, and the one that is a full molt ahead of the others is the only female. I have had similar growth experiences with G. aureostriata and P. antinous.

OTOH, I have had the opposite occur as well. One of the species in which I had a male outgrow his female sibling (coincidently or not) was G. pulchra. Maybe this is a phenomenon that is more pronounced in this particular species?

I also had two X. immanis of the opposite sex that always molted within a week of each other and stayed roughly the same size. The male however, matured on one of his molts (at a pretty small size for this species) whereas I doubt the female was mature at this size. Perhaps this demonstrates that males don't necessarily grow faster, but require fewer molts to reach maturity.

John

PS- Very beautiful spider you've got there, Bjorgly.

 

[Telson]

I can't wait til mine turns black! She's a 1" sling and still pretty much just dull grey.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Interesting observation on growth of slings!

Was there any differences in feeding schedules? Perhaps you held back feeding on the specimens approaching molts quicker, while those that didn't appear to be coming up on a molt you fed more frequently? If that makes sense, lol! Perhaps there was a difference in the timing of the molts as you've mentioned, males molting quicker and receiving less food, with females molting slower and getting more food, resulting in larger size of the female?

Peace,

Paul

 

[Bjorgly]

I do have molt records, I'll post them asap. I also have the skin but I am not good at all at sexing it. perhaps I could unfold it and post a pic? Then could someone tell me?

Mark