June 14, 2004
Peruvian Green
My Thrixopelma puriens molted yesterday. And this time I managed to get pictures of it without deleting everything, I'm quite proud. She sat flipped over for a long time before actually begining the process of shedding her skin. When you see that bit of clear skin at the top of her abdomen, you know she's ready to do it.
You can see the skin has split away on her abdomen and the top of her cephalothorax has popped off.
She's almost done here, just a bit more leg to pull out...
Right after the deed, all wet and slimey.
Close-up of her white fang area.
And after all that, she looks like this. Even right after a molt, her butt looks like it has a bald spot. This might be because she's old, I bought her as an adult from a petshop and I have no idea how old she is. I've had her for about 8 years?
And finally, here's a close-up of her carapace. I'm not sure exactly what species she is, I found many, many photos of tarantulas that look very much like her on the internet. But after she molted and I observed this green sheen on her body, I concluded that she was most likely a Peruvian green, Thrixopelma puriens. Her black colour with green highlights fades away to a light brown over time, until she molts again.
