Usambara successful moult.

Lopez

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Well, after a long time thinking about it (he hasn't eaten since February 8th) Mugabe finally decided to moult.
He's been sitting inside his tube web a lot, spinning extra layers of silk and building extensions.

At about 9:15 I looked up to see he was flat on his back in his ground floor burrow



He remained utterly motionless until about 11pm...I looked up at 11:20 and he was almost entirely out of the old skin.



It didn't take long before he was entirely free - check out his new fangs, still white and soft. The old skin is on the left.



He was fully free by about 12:45, and pushed the old skin to the entrance of his burrow.



He's a LOT bigger now, but his abdomen is rather small and shrivelled (as always after a moult) I'll have to let him harden up for a few days before he can take food.

Here's the old skin:



When he decides to come out of his burrow I'll get some pics of him - he's now a really bright shade of orange.

I know it's just a moult, but I can never help but worry about them at the time hehe.
 
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ArachnoJoost

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Really nice set of pictures! I haven't seen too much usumbara molting pictures, I think because they are quite secretive about it.
greetz,
Joost
p.s. nice name, Mugabe ;)
 

Gillian

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I agree, awesome pics! I just think the freshly molted look of fangs is so cool. Can you imagine if tarantulas always had white fangs? For some reason, it would be a bit more frightening. Hmmm..could they be black, for camouflaging reasons?
Peace,
Gillian
 

safetypinup

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Great pics :)
Is he mature? If so, you'll have to find him a girlfriend...hehe... We've got a couple of females, if you're interested :) Let me know

Flannery
 

The_Phantom

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Coool ! Glad he was sucsessful ! Now it looks like he needs to build a bigger burrow.
 

Lopez

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He/she/it came out for a stretch at last tonight - the abdomen is painfully thin, but as you can see his fangs are howhere near hard enough to take food yet.

I'm amazed at how orange it is after the moult - it's always been a darker red until now.





Awesome green/blue "feet"!
 

Raveness

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Hehehhehe...how cute! Look at her pink fang stick.



Originally posted by Lopez
He/she/it came out for a stretch at last tonight - the abdomen is painfully thin, but as you can see his fangs are howhere near hard enough to take food yet.

I'm amazed at how orange it is after the moult - it's always been a darker red until now.

Awesome green/blue "feet"!
<EDIT: try to remove the images when you quote a post... that way there's no repeats and our dialup users can see the thread the same day they click on it. :) - Mister Internet>
 

Gillian

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Lopez,
Poor baby! How long did it fast, before the molt? My blondi is just now getting some meat on her abdomen. After her last molt, her abdomen was many times smaller than her cephalothorax.
Peace,
Gillian
 

MrT

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Lopez,
Great pics man.
Try to sex the skin cast.
I think Hes a She.

Ernie
 

Lopez

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Originally posted by MrT
Lopez,
Great pics man.
Try to sex the skin cast.
I think Hes a She.

Ernie
I certainly hope he's a she.

Fasted since the 25th of January - only exception was a single cricket on the 8th of Feb, so basically a month, which I thing is a long time for one so small.
The skin in the photos above measures 1.5 inches across (without stretching it or anything)

Unfortunately the abdomen got pretty torn up in the moult.
 

MrT

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Originally posted by Lopez
I certainly hope he's a she.

Fasted since the 25th of January - only exception was a single cricket on the 8th of Feb, so basically a month, which I thing is a long time for one so small.
The skin in the photos above measures 1.5 inches across (without stretching it or anything)

Unfortunately the abdomen got pretty torn up in the moult.
If you still have the skin, get a shallow dish and put a drop of dish soap on it, then add a little water. Mix it up and put the skin in it. I cut off the legs to get them out of the way. Take a couple of straight pins and carefully open the abdomen. It takes some time, but you can do it, Onces its open, take a closeup pic of it.
Of course the pic is of the inside of the abdomen.
Post it so we can have a look.:)

Ernie
 
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