Ted is a Grammostola pulchripes or Chaco Golden knee tarantula. About 18 months old.
Ted moulted yesterday and as you can see here, it went successfully.

This is a good chance to try to sex him, by using the moulted skin and looking inside the Opisthosoma or bum area.
This picture shows Ted’s bit but he is a girl. 🙂

The red area is the Spermathecae or her “ahem..lady bits” this is also where the male inserts his sperm, though here from outside.

The green areas are the Book lungs and the blue arrow points towards the head.

This photo also shows half of ted’s Opisthosoma or eyes

These are the 4 lenses more closely

Lastly, this is Ted Fully moulted and gently moving around. Still shy but getting to grips with a new outside.

That’s a little bit about Ted.

You have problems.

Teds nice, does she bite ,and how long do they live for,how big is she in inches.

Best wishes to her for a new baby

You have problems.

EH? Why so rude?

Love Roper’s posts with spiders and stuff. Fascinating. Great to see someone so passionate about little creatures. I learn from this.

Got any new pedelings? 😀

lol, Inverts are a problem but not a bad one 🙂
Thanks for the nice comments though Elf.I don’t have any more pedelings but do have a Pink Foot Goliath (Theraphosa apophysis) sling. At the moment it is about 4cm but could grow up to 30cm (13 inches). I’ll take some photos once she has settled in.

project
Ted if male would have probably lived for 10 to 12 years or so. As he is now a female she could live 35+ years. She really is a gentle giant and has never shown signs of aggression or threat. Her venom is mild so if she did bite it would be fine. At the moment Ted is about 6cm (2.5 inches) but will grow to about 20cm to 23cm (8 or 9 inches). She is too young to mate but these things can take time with spiders.

Lovely. I learned what ‘pedelings’ were through your fascinating posts. Always nice to learn new stuff. Keep it up!

I like spiders, me. Won’t have them killed; people need to learn how important spiders are, and not be frightened of them.

Loved this pic of a mother with her young:

Love spiders, cool pics.

You’re bum sexing a spider?

What do you do with the shed skin?

Roper thanks for that, always nice to hear of somebody who likes incects and spiders.

Lovely clever things they are

She is quite a hairy lady!

That photo is by a friend who has been doing very well breeding scolopendras. He takes lovely photos of inverts and wildlife too but keep photo journals on some like that photo.
Now you got me started he also has a fe vids,
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hMAUitOwfE[/video]

You’re bum sexing a spider?

Actually their sex organs are nearer their brain than their bum but yes I have been posting spider porn 🙂

Wow! Interesting, thanks.

Not for me, but I prefer them to dragonflys. Insects should not be bigger than birds!

What do you do with the shed skin?

I tend to chop’em up and have a look under a USB microscope. They are very fragile but do show all the details you can’t always get close to see. Occasionally they are sent off for testing for DNA or to be used by students studying arachnids.

Fascinating stuff roper, find your posts very interesting.

Gradually getting over my stupid fear of spiders. I can cope with slow moving ones but the superfast house spiders I can’t manage. Such a wimp.

spider pr0n 🙂

Elfinsafety – Member
You have problems.
EH? Why so rude?

Sorry. I had forgotten that any tongue in cheek comment on here requires the use of simpleton smileys. 🙄

I also enjoy Roper’s posts, and have found him very helpful when I had a spider problem myself on here, but I think this may explain my original response:

roper – Member
yes I have been posting spider porn

Ok, but in fairness, how is anyone sposed to know your comments are meant in a jovial manner? I just thought you were being a bit rude. I’m mistaken and I apologise.

What I love about Roper’s posts is that he is clearly very passionate about and fascinated with spiders and insects and stuff, and wants to share his joy with others. That’s really nice, in my book. He also has a real talent for drawing. Have you seen his drawings? Roper, show us a couple please!

Go on then 🙂
This is this years Autunmal picture,

And a Macrothele calpeiana

What do you do with the shed skin?

you could always use it to advertise a new kitchen and bathroom cleaner.

Smileys to show joviality? Do we have one which allows me to say “You spider freak” then show that I’m really not joking?

Roper, the squirrel is stunning, but I do have issues with the spider drawing. I can cope with a Tarantula, but other Arachnida I do have problems with, well, bigger ones anyway. Large house spiders and Cardinal spiders do give me the creeps, but furry Tarantulas I can just about manage. Dragonflies, now there’s a creature of rare and stunning beauty, the bigger the better, insect equivalent of a helicopter gunship.

See??! Told you he was talented!

That spider one looks like a B+W photograph.

This forum is enriched by people like you, Roper.

shit me I didnt realise the other pics were drawings, thought they were photos that had undergone some PS tweaking 😯

Another fan of Roper’s spider tales, that’s a beautiful one!

Are you going to rename her? I’d not personally want a 23cm spider with personality issues wandering around…

Thanks for the nice comments, about bugs or my drawings 🙂

Inverts but especially arachnids are pretty special little things. THey have been arround for millions of years live virtually everywhere, yet we know so little about them. It’s nice to hear that other´s apprciate them too. I understand they can scare the sh*te out of some people but the vast majority of spiders are stunning weird little things that do nother more than be little spiders and fulfill their part of the great big cycle of nature.

I’ll end with a friends photo pf a Hyllus diardi

Ahhhh brings back memories of my two (Suzy and Fido). Fido was a Mexican Red Knee – once when he/she (never found out) moulted the old skin was so perfect that, once dried out, I put it in a box and took it to our local.
While chatting to my girlfriend who worked behind the bar gordon, the pub owner, came over and we started chatting. He asked what was in the box which I had put on the bar – I opened one end of the box and tipped it up…. out slid fido’s old skin which continued to slid down the highly polished bar.
Gordon nearly had a heart attack and banned me for two days 😀

I have fond memories of my neighbour’s spiders, he worked at the Natural History Museum and owned the beastie that walked over James Bond’s chest in (I think it was) Dr. No.

Cool thread.

Well mogrim or anyone else, if you would like more info about keeping them or beginner species, feel free in sending me an email 🙂
Most are easy to look after and pretty cheap. If you set them up as naturally as you can and then leave then alone, they pretty much look after themselves.
They are addictive though.

Well mogrim or anyone else, if you would like more info about keeping them or beginner species, feel free in sending me an email

Currently have a dog, cat, turtle, fish, not to mention two kids. I’m too much of a coward to suggest to the wife I’d like a tarantula.