Sex anyone?

[Alexander Ramsey]

Hi,

Conquest was sold to me as a Haplopelma minax and has recently molted cleanly so I was hoping someone could have a crack at sexing it from the molt? Also, if anyone has reasonable grounds to suspect this is not a minax, I'd be interested to hear suggestions?

[Phil Rea]

Can't tell from the pics. You need to either unravel the skin of the abdomen, and have a look between the front pair of booklungs. Wet it first in some water with a drop (no more) of washing up liquid. If you're not confident doing it yourself, pack it up in a pot containing damp tissue, and send it to someone who will do it for you.

If you're stuck, you can PM me and I'll have a look at it for you

[Alexander Ramsey]

Cheers Phil. After reading that, I've done a bit of reading up and on closer inspection of the cast (see pic 1) I think the molt is not as clean as first thought. It would appear the area in question is largely missing. I will still have a go at softening it and getting in for a look, it'll be a pactice if nothing else.
Thanks

[Phil Rea]

No problems

It's probably not all missing. You don't necessarily need all of it to determine the sex.

The abdominal 'skin' twists, so you will need to very carefully untwist it. Use some blunt pins or tweezers to do it, and a wetted paintbrush is very useful. It is very fragile though, so take care

[Lisa Baines]

oh dont get me started on unraveling the abdominal bit! Especially on juvi exuviums... Great fun!!!

[Phil Rea]

C. elegans juveniles are fun

C. crawshayi juveniles, you can unravel with a mop and bucket

[Colin D Wilson]

I'm voting a 2 inch LS G grossa as this years worse one for me.
Two hours it took as it kept curling back and i ended up pinning it out to dry out fully before even attempting to move it into position to photograph it


Still it worked out with a nice result eh?

[Phil Rea]

Nice one Colin

Even better if you've got a male to go with it

[Matthew Baines]

I use a jewelers loope (30x) to magnify them so i can sex them . I'm starting to make a fine art of it now i know exactly what too look for .

[Phil Rea]

Being a jeweller (amongst other things ), a loupe is an extremely useful tool. 30x is an enormous magnification to use handheld though, and you would need to be extremely close to the subject to get a clear view. We actually examine and grade diamonds with a 10x

A 10x would be a more useful magnification in general I would suggest.

I'm fortunate to have a trinocular zoom stereo microscope, but I do still use a loupe for the bigger ones!

[Matthew Baines]

Being a jeweller (amongst other things ), a loupe is an extremely useful tool. 30x is an enormous magnification to use handheld though, and you would need to be extremely close to the subject to get a clear view. We actually examine and grade diamonds with a 10x

A 10x would be a more useful magnification in general I would suggest.

I'm fortunate to have a trinocular zoom stereo microscope, but I do still use a loupe for the bigger ones!

Seems to do fine for me ( I use it mainly on my juveniles) . We also have a few different macro lenses too

[Phil Rea]

Seems to do fine for me ( I use it mainly on my juveniles) . We also have a few different macro lenses too

Well if it ain't broke, then there's no need to fix it

[Matthew Baines]

Was a bargain too . Has a built in light and cost us about 10 quid

[Colin D Wilson]

Even better if you've got a male to go with it

Ohh if only it were mine Phil, this one's Elaines...she posted the moult down to me (just to check that it was what it said on the tin etc )

regarding the use of magnifying aids...........
I use a 10x Hilkinson Ruper (cheap chinese jobbie but dam good optics for the price and i prefer it over my Zeiss)

[Phil Rea]

Was a bargain too . Has a built in light and cost us about 10 quid

Sounds good

Ohh if only it were mine Phil, this one's Elaines...she posted the moult down to me (just to check that it was what it said on the tin etc )

regarding the use of magnifying aids...........
I use a 10x Hilkinson Ruper (cheap chinese jobbie but dam good optics for the price and i prefer it over my Zeiss)

Ahhh, I see

Hint and tip, if you ever see a cheap Belomo loupe, grab it. They're made in Belarus, and the optics are brilliant.

Mind you, they would be bearing in mind the factory used to make optics exclusively for the Soviet 'government', and they are now partners with Zeiss