Today I’m catching up with lab work, and the first thing I spotted after coming through the door was that our tarantula, Blue, had molted overnight. I’ve been keeping their molts as a record of their growth.
Top left is the molt from this past summer; top right is the latest, looking a bit crumpled. Human skull in the frame as a size reference.
Blue is in the background. They look smaller because they’re farther away, but trust me, Blue has grown! Also, they’re a bit cranky because I don’t think their cuticle is fully hardened yet.
How did Blue communicate their pronoun preference?
Spiders don’t use pronouns. I do.
PZ, if that is a full size human skull, you are indeed beginning to breed your monster spider army!
Have you had him fitted for a saddle yet?
Nice Tarantula, I imagine flaccid cuticle would make any spider a little cranky. I recently learned how to tell a good looking cellar spider from an ugly one. The ugly one’s cut their molt out of the web and let it drop onto the pile of desiccated rent below, while the good looking one’s leave their molt proudly in the web. It’s just an easily provable observation, and I don’t know why some drop them and others don’t.
That… human skull… er, are you sure you counted all your grad students? Best check in the corners of the lab for unattended phones or a laptop carcass.
My brother once had a tarantula named Maxine. We were a bit worried when we saw her legs all splayed out, but had to go to school. Then, later in the day, Mom declared, “We’ve had a baby!” before realizing that the second spider was the shed exoskeleton.