Monday, September 26, 2011

 Ok, Tonight I think my numbers might be slightly off, which I will try to explain in a bit. First off, there were only 2 that had not spot...which is good. That means they are eating enough to  get closer to molting, which in turn means the less delicate they are. There were 3 that showed the spot. There were 3 definite new molts, possibly 4. The 4th, I'm kind of uncertain about. It appeared to have molted very recently because of the bluish color of it's exoskeleton, but I couldn't find an old exoskeleton in the container. This means that either it was counted as a new molt yesterday , and its color hadn't changed( so far their colors have shifted from the bluish new-molt color to a tannish or brownish color by the next day), or, it had molted and destroyed its old exoskeleton. I have heard of tarantulas destroying their exoskeleton after molting, but being new to this, I have yet to experience it yet. However, since her last molt, Fifi, my Brachypelma boehmei still hasn't thrown out her old exoskeleton. She molted 3 weeks ago! Sometimes it seems as if they don't want to give up the familiarity of the old exuvium...kind of like a security blanket. Sometimes, when I open the container and they have molted, they'll run over to and crouch down by their old exuvium. To me it seems like it gives them comfort or perhaps a sense of protection. But perhaps it's purely instinctual. Perhaps to a predator, there might appear to be two spiders there, thus giving the newly molted spiderling a 50/50 chance of survival which would be better than if it was alone. All right! So much for new molts. OH! Not quite yet. I know for a fact that one of the babies that had molted previously had just molted AGAIN! A few days ago I had mentioned that I thought that perhaps1 or 2 babies that had already molted might have molted again. Since then, I divided the tank into 3 sections. Section 1 had babies with no spots and this withs spots that had not molted. Section 2 had the newly molted babies, and section3 had the ones that had already molted(old molts). Today, while going throughout he little guys, I found 1 that was still trying to get the exuvium off its abdomen. Of course I was excited by this find. I guess I need to email Stan Schultz again to see if he remembers how often his L.parahybana spiderlings molted.
  One last thing before I go.  Dylan in Kalamazoo, MI got the baby I sent him today! Herre is the picture he sent me of his new baby getting acquainted with its new house.

I hope you can see it. It's in the tube/hide. How cool is that!?

Till next time Adios muchachos!

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