Hermaphrodite Tarantula?

[Ariel]

Not that I'm against the idea of a hermaphroditic tarantula, and acctually quite honestly the idea intrests me very much, but this "1 inch eggsac" could it have simply been a prey item wrapped in webbing? I've heard of, rosies especially, wrapping up their food before they eat it, (or don't eat it) I'm not an expert in the least, but I though that a 1" eggsac seemed kind of small. I've never breed tarantulas, but from reading, pictures, and videos that does seem small to me. Did you (or your friend) acctually remove it and look inside, or see the rosie laying the eggs?

 

[xhexdx]

I was thinking that but the OP said the owner saw eggs.

 

[Ariel]

I was thinking that but the OP said the owner saw eggs.

oh, I guess you're right. I've been following this thread since it was first posted, I haven't looked at the original post for a few days now. my bad.

 

[A.iodius]

I know in certain species of fish in the absence of a mature male a female can switch sexes and I believe this occurs with some reptiles as well. Other reptiles are capable of parthnogenisis (not sure I spelled that right). So who knows what we still have to discover about our eight legged friends.

 

[Deadlytarantulacouple93]

So I am utterly confused. I have already asked several other tarantula breeders about this and they have no knowledge of this situation.


A couple years ago my friend received a rose hair tarantula. She developed an egg sac with a 1'' diameter. My friend disposed of it but opened it to see the eggs. Several months later it molted and a cricket nibbled on one of its legs damaging it.

Now I was over this weekend and noticed this female was quite active. When I checked on her I noticed her pedipalps were extended like a males and was quite surprised to see the front two legs had the hooks mature males develop.

This tarantula laid an egg sac, yet now was acting like a mature male and showed the signs of one. The only theory I had was that someone killed his original tarantula and replaced it, but he has had no one but himself take care of it and it still had the damaged leg form its molt. I am quite confused. Can anyone enlighten me?

The word gynandromorph comes from the greek: gyne means female, andros means male and morph means form. A gynandromorph is an animal that are divided half female and half male, they have organs of both sexes and offen haves characteristic of sexual dimorphism like colour/patterns-differences, and differences of antennas, wings, claws and horns. Gynandromorphs has nothing to do about hermafrodism - It´s an rare genetic abnormality that appears in insects, arachnids and crayfishes.

Earlier cases of gynandromorphs:
Often gynandromorphs cant function as females nor males, and cant reproduce. But there is a case of a lobster, where the female produced a half batch of eggs. The lobster lost the eggs but a group of scientist managed to save a few that later developed to fully functional animals.

More cases of gynandromorphs have been found in butterflies, jungle nymphs - Heteropteryx dilatata, leafs insects - Phyllium bioculatum, hissing cockroach - Gromphadorhina portentosa, beetles - Mecynorhina polyphemus confluens, grasshopper - Tropidacris collaris.

And now to the most interssting... Spiders!
It´s also had been found in wolfspider - Alopecosa pulverulenta. Two matings with one female has been noticed, it´s laying an eggsack, but unfortunately the eggs dosn´t develop.

Poecilotheria ornata - Gynandromorph
Could gynandromorphs occurs in Theraphosids? Yes, why not...
My friend that owns this odd specimen called me and explain that his Poecilotheria ornata really looks wierd. He explains that half of the spider has nomal pattens and colours, while the other half reduced/faded patterns and are brownish. This get me thinking of gynandromorphs I reading about earlier. My friend came to me with this specimen that I study and took some photos of.

That we all know it has turn up many coulourvariations latley, like coulor/patterns differences in aetae. But this specimen I saw was somthing more than usuals. According to me it´s no doubt that my friend has an Poecilotheria ornata gynandromorph in his collection!

Both dorsal and ventral side has characteristic of sexual dimorphism, You can read more about it at my website: Sexing guide - Guide for revealing the gender of poecilotheria spp.: http://www.zoonen.com/perzoonen/artikel.asp?oid=233789 I also checked the ventral side of the abdomen, and here the epigastric furrow was a little bit sloping and has different thickness. The female-sides furrow was more white and opened, while the male-sides furrow was smaller and closed. Unfortunately I dosn´t got any good pictures of this.

The genetical cause:
Here I won´t get further in to this... I have several papers about gynandromorph at home, but it´s to difficult and to messy to explain more about this. It´s describtions about genetic, cells, cromosomes, autosomes, etc. But papers explains all in smallest detail how gynandromorphs develops.

 

[efmp1987]

Are you sure the egg sac you saw and touched wasn't just a gigantic turd-ball the T happily rolled? T's get bored too in such an enclosed space. They need a hobby!


LOL joke. Gynandromorphy can occur in spiders. They're quite common in butterflies.

 

[dragonfire1577]

Holy thread resurrection guys it's 8 years old haha, the OP's profile says they were active this month though so I am curious if they will chime in and tell us what became of this spider.

 

[BobBarley]

Poecilotheria ornata - Gynandromorph
Could gynandromorphs occurs in Theraphosids? Yes, why not...
My friend that owns this odd specimen called me and explain that his Poecilotheria ornata really looks wierd. He explains that half of the spider has nomal pattens and colours, while the other half reduced/faded patterns and are brownish. This get me thinking of gynandromorphs I reading about earlier. My friend came to me with this specimen that I study and took some photos of.

Could you post some of the photos? Those would be very intriguing.

 

[JoshDM020]

I can already tell this is gonna be the most interesting thing i read all day, i dont care how old it is.

 

[ShyDragoness]

:wideyed: OoooooOOOOOO