There have been some exciting developments revolving around my T collection recently. Foremost is that my birdeater, Lasiodora parahybana has molted. Unfortunately it's also shown its true colours: it's a boy. While this may seem like rather unimportant information, it actually immensely effects the poor little guy. See, female tarantulas in captivity live, on average, 15-20 years. Males, meanwhile, are fucked over with around a 4-5 year lifespan. The problem is that the modified pedipalps of the males, evolved as baby-making-sex-arms, prevent the males from moulting properly following their adult moult. Both male and female tarantulas attempt to moult after reaching adulthood, and the males just plain suck at it. My little fellow has about a year before he goes and commits suicide.
In less horrific news, the remainder of my collection is doing just dandy. My Pamphobeteus platyomma also just moulted, and while the gender is still unknown, it looks stunning. I'd take a picture, but honestly my camera just sucks (and I don't really have the initiative to take a picture right now).
I suppose I still owe the blog a post on tarantula mating, and while the reveal of my birdeater's gender would have been a perfect lead-in, I'm just not feeling that motivated right now. I've just spent the last 3 hours working on my anaesthesia course to the revelation that it's pretty much a doomed endeavour, and I want nothing more than to continue learning while my brain is in that gear, so I'm off to wander the internet in search of intriguing bug/reptile info. Or maybe those papers on Invertebrate emergency care... hrm...
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