Molting Macro

mack1time · Jun 26, 2008

My rose hair tarantula in a molt phase.
It is like shedding there skin and replacing it.
They actually slide out of the old exo skeleton.
NOTE the 16 legs!!!!
This is a very delicate phase and if you look hard enough you can see his anchorage lines to help right himself once the process is complete!

Sontizzle · Jun 26, 2008

i hate spider!

LaFoto · Jun 26, 2008

Where were these taken, where does it sit?
And the water beads --- do you have to spray your spider regularly during the process to help it "climb out" of its old "skin" (exo skeleton) ?

Do'Urden's Eyes · Jun 27, 2008

I think these would be a bit better if your depth of field was a bit larger. and try and put a small space beetween your pictures its hard to look at when theres no defined space between them.

KamaKazzy · Jun 27, 2008

What an amazing process to watch! I love rose hairs. They are just awesome tarantulas, and are actually quite gentle.

doenoe · Jun 27, 2008

Corinna, when the spiders moult they are laying on their backs. This is why it looks a bit weird

I also think these would be better if the DOF was bigger (higher F-number). But that you could see this process is just awesome. I never seen it myself. I dont have any spiders, but i would like one or two.

mack1time · Jun 27, 2008

thanks for all the comments everyone!
unfortunatly he passed today
I checked on him this morning and he was still struggling. I was not sure how long these things take but supposedly he should have been out in a couple hours.
This was day 3 so something must have went wrong.
I sprayed him down cause it seemed super dry and his old skin was litterally cracking off of him.
I'm sad
It was a good 2.5 yrs