Jumping spider pedipalps bloated?

Nephaleim

Arachnosquire
Joined
Nov 28, 2019
Messages
94
What's going on?
Some of you would've recognized this girl because I couple of weeks ago I posted her pictures here as a 'fat-ass spider'.
There is something very peculiar I noticed yesterday. Take a look at her pedips before and after:
IMG-20200321-WA0010.jpg
And now:
20200709_112824.jpg

It looks like they are bloated and filled with water. Like water balloons.
Anyone know what's going on?She did molt recently so maybe that would help somehow, though I didn't notice anything wrong with her after she did. I didn't observe her much either.
My sister says that maybe she is actually a male spider, but I don't think that is the case. I've identified the species as Marpissa muscosa.
 

Lucky123

Arachnobaron
Active Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2020
Messages
305
No it is a male, it just molted into maturity, mature males have bulbous pedipalps, as long as it is acting fine there shouldn’t be a problem.
 

Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
Staff member
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
4,095
It looks like they are bloated and filled with water. Like water balloons.
Anyone know what's going on?
That is a penultimate (one molt before maturity) male. At that stage, the palps are large and translucent, lacking the sclerotized definition seen in mature males.
 

Nephaleim

Arachnosquire
Joined
Nov 28, 2019
Messages
94
That is a penultimate (one molt before maturity) male. At that stage, the palps are large and translucent, lacking the sclerotized definition seen in mature males.
That's pretty cool I didn't know that.
 
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