Moult question

[JPGallagher]

Returning home from work today I was delighted to see my L. parahybana had moulted out in the open and emerged as a huge but equally stunning looking young lady. After watching her for a while, I observed her move over to the moult, take hold of it and drag it to the corner of her tank where she appeared to start to bite into it. She did this for about five minutes and has now just settled herself down on top of it. I have not witnessed any of my other spiders do this and was just wondering what she was doing. Can they get any nutrition from the moult?

[Chris Wheeler (Gigus)]

The attack was probably just a result of a nervous aggresive post moult spider dtetecting vibration, but alot of tarantulas do "chew" on the abdomen section of an exuvia after moulting, probably to obtain lost water.

[Richard Goram]

My L.parahybana's second to last moult was chewed and his last one wasn't. It is the only species I've seen do it.

[Ray Hale]

Some tarantulas use their old moult in their webbing. They silk over it break it to bits. Its possibly as a deterrent to predators in the wild as the skin causes irritation.


Ray