Haplopelma lividum Colour Question

wyllomoon

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
23
I have a Haplopelma lividum that was purchased as a smallish spiderling in November of 2006. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share as I am still working on getting a decent digital camera.

I've never kept one of these guys before and I know that the females can be an absolutely gorgeous shade of blue while the males are more brownish-grey in colour with only a little blue under certain lighting. I don't know the gender of the one I have here, but it's leg span is about 2" or so by now and it's a really plain shade of rusty brown. I'm just wondering if I should expect that it will stay this color as an adult or if it will change as it grows. Are juveniles always brown?

Thanks in advance.

Lisa
 

Becky

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
641
The bigger and older it gets the more blue it will become. In normal day light females are kinda black ... until you shine a light on them, then it brings out the irridescent blue on their legs :)
 

wyllomoon

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
23
Ah, I thought it might work that way. I read that the blue isn't always noticable unless it's under light. I just found it odd that this guy/girl is almost the exact same color as my OBT (just a shade or two darker), but then I've never had one before let alone watched one grow from a spiderling. So what do I know? :eek:

Thanks for your quick reply, Becky.
 

lunixweb

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 15, 2007
Messages
333
Hi, I guess if your h lividum is about 2" it should be showing its adult colors right now, but maybe you should wait until the next molt, try with some light above your T & you will be able to check its color more easily, if it looks a kind of brownish-grey maybe that will be its adult color and of course it's a male. {D
 

wyllomoon

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
23
Having just sneaked up on him and shone a flashlight on him before he could vanish back into his burrow, I could see that he has dark stripes similar to my OBT and is still brown. :confused: Is that normal? I don't see him often at all so it's sometimes difficult to catch sight of him/her/it right after a moult.
 

JMoran1097

Arachnoangel
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Joined
May 14, 2007
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924
Having just sneaked up on him and shone a flashlight on him before he could vanish back into his burrow, I could see that he has dark stripes similar to my OBT and is still brown. :confused: Is that normal? I don't see him often at all so it's sometimes difficult to catch sight of him/her/it right after a moult.
kinda sucks if you bought a H.Lividum male instead of a female. kinda defeats the purpose of buying a Cobalt Blue for show.
 

wyllomoon

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
23
Lopez said:
This is not correct. Sub adult male H.lividum are blue.
So the young ones should also be blue? This guy is completely brown.

JMoran1097 said:
kinda sucks if you bought a H.Lividum male instead of a female. kinda defeats the purpose of buying a Cobalt Blue for show.
Kinda, yeah. But all of the T's I have were purchased as unsexed with the option of trading back later if I end up with all males (which would be just my luck). Of course, I've grown a little too fond of some of them to ever think of parting with them (even if they do turn out male). I have no plans on breeding spiders yet and maybe not in the future either. I guess, only time will tell what this guy/girl is.



Oh and on a random side note, I spent hours online looking at pics of juvenile H.Lividum and I found two that look exactaly the same as mine:

This and this

Though I think he's a fair bit bigger than these two. At least I know I've not lost my mind. I was beginning to think that he might not be H.Lividum at all.

:?

Thanks for your help everyone.
 

Becky

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
641
Can you get a picture?

Has it got stripes on the abdomen as opposed to dots and stripes? Pterinochilus have the stripes and dots, Haplo's have the stripes.

Probably is lividum.. just wait a moult and see if things look up :)
 

Lopez

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 18, 2003
Messages
2,040
H.lividum (regardless of sex) begin to show blue at around 2" or so.
 
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