First molt since I acquired this Mexican red knee tarantula spiderling. Double-click image for the full impact.
After about six weeks of red knee tarantula ownership, the first of the two red knee tarantulas I purchased molted. The molt occurred somewhere between 5 PM November 23 and 9 AM November 24. The image above shows the exoskeleton as well as the tarantula almost two days after the molt. A penny provides size perspective. Adult type coloration is clearly beginning to appear.
Video of a different red knee tarantula individual molting can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSCd2jjjn0c&feature=related.
The shed exoskeleton, showing the start of subtle shading on various leg regions, is at the bottom of the picture. The shed abdomen is rotated 90 degrees from its original position. You can clearly see the pedicel, the narrow connection between the cephalothorax and abdomen. The nerve cord, aorta and digestive tract pass through the narrow, cord-like pedicel.
The exoskeleton’s chelicerae and associated fangs are rotated forward, giving the impression of greater body length than was actually the case.
The freshly molted individual is considerably larger than it was prior to the molt.. The original brown spider with subtle shading now possesses an entirely black abdomen, some black leg shading and the start of the orange/red “knees” that give the spider its common name. The colors will become even brighter with each future molt. An adult Mexican red knee tarantula with full coloration can be seen on the cover of “The Tarantula Keeper’s Guide,” assessed four blog entries ago.
Very nice!
Very cool!
Excellent Mr. Stone!
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