Worked out why my T wasn't eating - and a Q?

[dr del]

Hi,

Well it turns out Shadowspider was right (naturally I should have known ) but it seems I have myself a quick change artist - her bum darkened slightly but still looked pink when I shone the torch on it even a couple of days ago.

Then I came though on Friday afternoon to this;




Now for the Question.

If you look on her legs just below the knees you can see what look to be slashes in her skin.:eek:

I know they aren't splits because there is no leaking and they are on all the legs I could see ( don't want to disturb her).

Are these like "expansion panels" so that her legs can be narrow then expand once the molt is complete or are they something else? - I've never noticed them before at all but that counts for naught.

It took ages but I managed to get some good(ish) closeups showing their location and some of the finer detail.

You can see a diagonal one on the knee and the vertical ones on the leg;




And here is the best close up I could get - You have no idea how hard this was to get with a cruddy camera and not being able to move her from the dark corner of the tank - I ended up using striplights,spotlights and a drunken friend holding two torches to try and get enough light for it to even focus.




So what are they and how daft am I for not having noticed them before?

And would anyone be intrested in pictures of the sexing criteria from the shed skin If I can get a decent picture?



dr del

[dr del]

Hi,


Well I went and looked at the other shed skins I have and they are there just not as noticeable.

But I still don't know what they are - would anyone care to enlighten me?

I tried to get a good picture of the inside of the shed skin to show the sexing but most of them are out of focus so I will try again tomorrow. Here's the best one I have so far.





dr del

[Schlyne]

I have no idea on the "expansion panels". I've never dared to get that close to one of my itchy new worlder's to check.

I think you have a female. If you can angle the shot that you took that it's more of 45 degrees to the left or the right, it might be easier to see.

Basically, you're looking for a flap in the middle. If you have a fairly large flap (and brachy's are easy to sex this way, especially at the size of the spider you have) you have a female.