simon-newman:So. My #007 Tarantula molted today in the morning.This is Phormictopus Sp. “Bayah

simon-newman:So. My #007 Tarantula molted today in the morning.This is Phormictopus Sp. “Bayahibe” and I’ve gotten two of those in October of 2019 but never bothered checking if they’re male or female.Thus - it being Saturday and an easy to take fresh molt I’ve decided to do check immediately.The first two pictures are of a freshly molted spider - around 2 hours after the process. The spider was still kinda wobbly so I did my best not to disturb it too much.3rd picture is that of an important part of the molt - inside of it’s abdomen part and between the front pair of book lungs (those white spots) you can see a tiny M shaped thingie. This is a spermatheca and a proof that the spider is a female.I’ve also measured the molt and the spider is a bit over 12cm in diagonal leg span.Photo 4 - Brother Biggus for scale.Photo 5 - Brother Biggus and unfinished Outrider for scale.For my American friends - the spider is 1.5 Primaris Outriders diagonally.And she’ll grow bigger still.The genera is known for being quite large tho I don’t know how big in particular this species gets. I’ve only seen them sold when I bought my two specimen and never since. Not much is to be found on them on the web either as the entire genera is a mess.It is also possible that their price went up several times since then - if the other one also turns out to be female I’ll need to consider my options. Either sell her for a bit of instant money or try to find a male and attempt breeding them myself. -- source link