How do I see if a female spider is mature?

[The Creepy Lair]

Hello, I have a few S. florentina spiders and would like to know how to tell if one is a mature female. I know how to tell males from females appart, but I always wondered about the females.
Also, I am kind of keeping these as a stepping stone for tarantulas, specially the "beginner old world " T's. No, I dont want to move on too fast from keeping florentinas to old worlds xD I haven't even kept a tarantula yet. What I am asking is: what differs? Deffensiveness? Venom potency?

Could anyone give me breeding advice on the florentina as well?

Also, I want to change my name, but don't know how to. I feel like my name portrays tarantulas (and other inverts for that matter) as agressive creatures, which I know not to be true.

Thank you!

 

[HeartBum]

Females are larger, but of course depends on the ages of your specimens. Females can be brown/black whilst males are more commonly just black with occasional grey abdomen hairs.

Females will lay their sacks in their tubes, and may die before the slings are born, and they will then eat her.

I would strongly advise you start with a NW tarantula before moving on to OW's simply because the size of a T is VERY different to a florentina so it's best to become accustomed to a larger specimen before attempting to deal with something that could give you a really bad time for a few days/weeks/months, should you get tagged. Florentina's venom potency is very mild compared to an OW tarantula. They're one of the "most venomous" species of spider we have here in the UK, but honestly, it's not going to get you running to A&E for pain relief like some OW's, and will only last a maximum of a few hours. Read some bite reports on here and you'll see OW venom is far more potent and have grown men crying, with most saying it's the worst pain they've ever felt in their lives.

As for changing your name - https://arachnoboards.com/account/upgrades there's an option here to pay $5 for the service.

Cheers,

HeartBum

 

[Tarantuland]

For tarantulas, when it molts if the spermatheca is well defined and visible, 75% of adult size but I've heard even 50% of adult size can work. I know much less about true spiders but I have a few, don't know about S florentina though there's a section on this site for true spiders. Tarantulas are longer living and easier to keep alive IMO