quick moult

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi. I found a strange thing yesterday and was wondering if anything similar had happened to anyone else. I was checking on one of my Poecilotheria formosas in the morning and it's moulted. Nothing strange in that I know except it only moulted 3 weeks ago as well. Nothing strange in that either except this spider is 4.5 inches long and wasn't due to moult for another 2-3 months! I've had double moults before, where a spider has had a bad moult and induced a second one to remove the defects, but this has happened immediately, not a moult, then back to normal eating and running about, then back to moult again. Also the spider was black and white, with a beautiful purple sheen to the carapace when I shone a torch on it. Now it is light grey and white and turns almost completely purple and white when under light. The spider has not grown in this second moult, if anything looks a little smaller (if that's possible). Any ideas?

[Nicola Dolby]

P. formosa

Alarm over! the strange colour was because it was a fresh moult, after a couple of days the exoskeleton has darkened to normal. This doesn't explain the 'double' moult though, unless there was an internal problem causing the first moult to be 'bad'.

[Ray Hale]

I have had a few tarantulas that have moutled twice in quick sucession. In the main Asian species, lividum, minax etc. I believe that when a tarantula's life is threatened through a bad moult they can instigate a moult very soon after the first.

Amazing creatues and we know so little......

[Nicola Dolby]

poecilotheria

I couldn't agree more. Thanks Ray