Latrodectus color faded

iascailt

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2020
Messages
30
Hello,
I noticed that the red color of my 0.1 Latrodectus hasselti faded in just a couple of days, she's now completely black. I never experienced or heard of this and can't find any information on the internet. She's still alive and I received her as an adult in may. Is that normal? Why did it happen?
thank you very much
Best regards
 

Darkchrist31

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 13, 2021
Messages
71
It will be best if you could share some photos of her, we would like to see and learn as well.
 

iascailt

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2020
Messages
30
Her pose yesterday was pretty usual, now it's starting to get really weird
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
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Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
I've read about this, what it may be, all technical bio-chemistry and too confusing to memorize. Summed up and simplified, it's all about age where a body slows or stops producing nutrients to maintain itself. In humans the process takes is slow starting normally in the late 40s. In animals with shorter life spans it can occur much faster.
But I'm confused here as to how the poorly vascularized exoskeleton can alter so rapidly.
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Messages
1,606
I've read about this, what it may be, all technical bio-chemistry and too confusing to memorize. Summed up and simplified, it's all about age where a body slows or stops producing nutrients to maintain itself. In humans the process takes is slow starting normally in the late 40s. In animals with shorter life spans it can occur much faster.
But I'm confused here as to how the poorly vascularized exoskeleton can alter so rapidly.
Is the colour on the exoskeleton or is that translucent? I've never seen a Latrodectus exuvium. If the colour is on the exoskeleton, that seems very weird, but if it's translucent and the colour is underneath, then it seems less odd.
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
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Aug 1, 2019
Messages
1,606
I'm guessing translucent. Can you research? I'm buried in a metallurgy project right now that's precluded my few remaining functional brain cells.
Hey man I'm at work doing environmental monitoring for covid

(but yeah I'll google it while I'm incubating samples)

Edit: I've just contacted a Latrodectus researcher I know, Dr. Catherine Scott, and am discussing with her. She feels this speed is quite unusual but mentioned that the exoskeleton on the abdomen is extremely thin and that the pigmentation is internal. She also says that abdominal colouration changes can be related to diet, and that Latrodectus in captivity often have very dull colouration compared with wild. Her expertise is not in the mechanisms of their colouration, but she suspects that colour changes like this are related to lack of essential nutrients in a typically limited captive diet.

Given the age of the animal, speed with which this happened, and strange position, I personally wouldn't be surprised if this animal is just on its last legs, and we're seeing internal changes related to imminent death from old age (this part did not come from Dr. Scott though, to be clear).
 
Last edited:

iascailt

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2020
Messages
30
I've read about this, what it may be, all technical bio-chemistry and too confusing to memorize. Summed up and simplified, it's all about age where a body slows or stops producing nutrients to maintain itself. In humans the process takes is slow starting normally in the late 40s. In animals with shorter life spans it can occur much faster.
But I'm confused here as to how the poorly vascularized exoskeleton can alter so rapidly.
So she just aged? Like humans getting gray hair and wrinkles? That was one guess but I wanted to make sure. I guess her time is just about to run out. I never experienced something like this, I've seen male tarantulas die from old age but their behavior was different and their body did not change.
Thank you all
 

iascailt

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 21, 2020
Messages
30
Hey man I'm at work doing environmental monitoring for covid

(but yeah I'll google it while I'm incubating samples)

Edit: I've just contacted a Latrodectus researcher I know, Dr. Catherine Scott, and am discussing with her. She feels this speed is quite unusual but mentioned that the exoskeleton on the abdomen is extremely thin and that the pigmentation is internal. She also says that abdominal colouration changes can be related to diet, and that Latrodectus in captivity often have very dull colouration compared with wild. Her expertise is not in the mechanisms of their colouration, but she suspects that colour changes like this are related to lack of essential nutrients in a typically limited captive diet.

Given the age of the animal, speed with which this happened, and strange position, I personally wouldn't be surprised if this animal is just on its last legs, and we're seeing internal changes related to imminent death from old age (this part did not come from Dr. Scott though, to be clear).
Thank you very much.
her coloration never seemed dull to me until now but I've never seen wild Latrodectus sp. I also made sure they had at least some variation in food but obviously I can't make sure that she'll get insects local to Australia since I live in Europe. I also read that the coloration is internal and the exoskeleton is translucent, I'm just not sure if the exoskeleton changed or her inner body which is slowly dying
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Messages
1,606
Unable to assimilate certain nutrients?
Certainly other animals get worse at nutrient processing when they're very old - it's an interesting idea. Of course you'd need to observe a lot of Latrodectus in their final days to have a sense if this is normal or if there's something else going on with this specimen.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
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Aug 8, 2005
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Of course you'd need to observe a lot of Latrodectus in their final days to have a sense if this is normal or if there's something else going on with this specimen.
And nutrient processing varies from one individual to the next as each has it's own unique combinations of microflora and chemistry
 
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