Originally Posted by Andybill
While they are obviously big spiders and they are very cool I have no idea what all that scientific mumbo jumbo is. Do they have names that folks such as myself would understand?
I'll start putting the common names up there too.
The miniature leg looking things on the front are modified mouthparts called pedipalps. When a male matures (his ultimate or last molt) the tip becomes modified into a funky bulb that he uses as an intermittent organ. He drops some sperm packets, picks them up in these bulbs and then heads off to find a female. He then drums, hopefully well enough to woo her, and using his front legs pushes the female back (sometimes there are hooks to hold her chelicerae (fangs) at bay. That is the part you're seeing in the pics. While she's bent upwards he reaches under and then inserts the sperm packets. Then he typically boogies out of there before she makes a meal of him.
There is a bit more too it than that, but that's the basics.
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