how do I know if a Poecilotheria male is mature?

Bob

Arachnoangel
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Sep 17, 2002
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I have a 6 inch or so female poecilotheria regalis . My local petshop has a 5-6 inch male al webbed up in a cage. I was thinking of making an offer for him but have no idea if he is "too old" or if he is even mature yet. I don't think these guys have hooks ? Webbed in so I have no idea if he has made a sperm web.....any advice?

Bob
 

Jmugleston

Arachnoprince
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Jul 31, 2007
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I have a 6 inch or so female poecilotheria regalis . My local petshop has a 5-6 inch male al webbed up in a cage. I was thinking of making an offer for him but have no idea if he is "too old" or if he is even mature yet. I don't think these guys have hooks ? Webbed in so I have no idea if he has made a sperm web.....any advice?

Bob
Mature male pokies undergo an intense color chance for their ultimate stage. Also, the distal segment of their pedipalps will be modified to act as intromittent organs. (It has been covered before so I thought I'd use different terminology to throw of the search police! :))

They'll be a brownish color and it will look look like they have a pair of boxing gloves on their pedipalps.



The male is the one toward the top of the photo.

As for age, look at the male, if he looks good, go for it. If he looks like he's been around for a while (typically you'll see a loss of setae (hair) on the legs) then he may be a bit old. The male in the photo is now 13 months old, still producing sperm webs, and still pairing with my female P. regalis. He's a little Don Juan as far as P. regalis go.
 

Bob

Arachnoangel
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Sep 17, 2002
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777
Thanks ! I think I will need to have the shop dig him out of his web so I can take a look at him, He is about 5-6 inches but I can not view him from the top without tearing up the cage a bit. My female just shed....ready to rock !

Bob
 

dianedfisher

Arachnobaron
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Mar 14, 2007
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Mature Male Poecilotheria miranda palpal emboli

Here is a photo of the male sex organs. They are not always as pronounced as this, especially when freshly molted, but you can usually see the at least a portion of the shiny, reddish emboli once you know where to look. Believe me, I asked this question a zillion times when I first got into the hobby and I still ask it sometimes on freshly molted males of new sepcies until the emboli peek out at me.
Diane
 

smallara98

Arachnobaron
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Mar 30, 2009
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Like every one is saying , MM pokies lose alot of colors and are not as pretty . They are also smaller and way more leggy .
 
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