P. irminia lost colours after molt!

[Tugbay Yagci]

greetings,

my P. irminia sling molted last day into a full black spider. it lost its orange colourations both on the abdomen and on the legs. it seems even a little bit transparent-like now.

it eats very well and reacts the same way as it did before the molt.

i first thought about mellanism like in the leopards but it had the colours before the molt.

what could this be?
if anyone has any idea, i'd be glad to hear.

picture on the left: after the molt
picture on the right: before the molt

thanks

[Kelly Battman]

hi

Give it time to harden up properly but you may well have a male. they are slightly lighter in overall colour and has very very faint orange markings. the legs look very thin too if you want, could post a pic of our male he is a bit older but you will get an idea.
hope it helps

[Tugbay Yagci]

it might be male but even if so, could the dimorphism occur so early? it 5th or 6th molt.

i think this was a big change in its colors as seen on the photo and i also think that such a big change can only happen after the ultimate molt of males.

am i wrong?

edit: sorry, i wrote "molted last day" in the first post. I have to say it has been 6-7 days. it is eating very well for 2 days. sorry for misleading.

[James Box]

i may be wrong, but i don't think that's a sign of maturity...i think they look radically different at maturity, and someone can correct me if i am wrong, but i think they change at maturity, not before...
at least that's what happened with my cambridgei male.

[mary walters]

They do indeed James, they go like bottle brushes, brown with the orange flash on each foot. That one looks mature but bald, his pedipalps look bulbous to me.

[Tugbay Yagci]

That one looks mature but bald, his pedipalps look bulbous to me.

you are not referring to mine with this sentence, are you?

[Guy Tansley]

Could be a 'wet moult'. This sometimes happens for an unknown reason - the bristles don't recover well after a moult and give the bald appearance. All being well, it should be back to normal after it's next moult. IMO the spider isn't mature.

[Clinton Hogben]

i first thought about mellanism like in the leopards but it had the colours before the molt.

mellanism is normaly addaptive where a species will evolve darker colours to suit its conditions over many generations like the peppered moth, or it can happen as a genetic mutation prior to birth but I would not imagine it would happen later in life for any species

but I could be wrong

[Colin D Wilson]

I have to agree with Guy on this one, the shiney / bald look after fully hardening is very reminiscent of a wet moult.
It may not be too long before it decides to moult again if it's quite happily feeding ok.

[mary walters]

Never thought of wet moult Colin, just looks bald to me. I thought the pedi's looked bulbous.

[Tugbay Yagci]

for those who are still interested,

She molted 1 week ago and recovered full colors on legs and semi-colours on abdomen. And exuvium showed that she is a female. I'll post pictures as soon as i get home.