Observing the tarantula life cycles is fascinating. The first Honduran curly hair tarantula I purchased (Brachypelma albopilosum) molted into his final, mature male form on March 2.
Recently he produced his first sperm web. The entire sperm web concept is pretty fascinating, again reinforcing the myriad of ways that life forms differ in how they go about reproducing. Sperm webs are tent-like webs that are open on both ends. Spun against a rock, or side of their enclosure when in captivity, the mature male crawls upside down underneath the web and deposits a droplet of semen on the underside of the silk tent.
He then crawls onto the surface of web and alternately loads the boxing glove-like bulbs at the end of his pedipalps with sperm. The sperm, with their flagellae wrapped tightly around them, are encapsulated in a layer of protein. They will remain dormant until called upon to fertilize a female’s eggs.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a mature female curly hair tarantula. I may have to do some online shopping this weekend…
[…] albopilosum) that molted into his final adult form on March 3, 2013, and then produced his first sperm web several days ago, produced what appears to be a well formed, classic sperm […]
[…] male’s ultimate molt took place November 17, 2013. He spun his first sperm web last week. He should be ready to mate now. As a mature male, his lifespan is quite […]