Normal or Infection?

[Taki Tsonis]

This is a pic of my T blondi's spermathecae.....



I'm curious as to wether those indicated 'rotten' areas are normal or indicative of an an infection or something.... this same female recently ate her egg-sac and I was wondering if it could be related.

[Taki Tsonis]

Not a single reply in a week!!! What is the point of asking questions on this forum in that case.......?

[Colin D Wilson]

Well i noticed this last week, then got caught up in other stuff and obviously neglected to reply, sorry Taki.

I cant say i've seen areas as dark as your image on spematecae i've looked at, slightly darker edges of fully sclerotised organs on some species is not uncommon from my observations, still not to the extent of your female (saying this i've never owned a T blondi to that size)
Not sure if this would have anything to do with egg sac failure, though it's possible there could still be this problem (if it is a problem) now she has moulted.
There's been posts recently where a spiders spermatecae were sclerotised on a particular moult and the following moult the spematecae looked almost juvenile, this combined with our recent enigma here where we found an Avicularia sp spermatecae "folded" in a thin membrane (this spider again showed adult spermatecae in the last moult).
This is posing a puzzler to me now as just relying on a subsequent moult to fortify the fact that the spider is mature enough to mate and breed successfully is now becoming a bit hit and miss with this evidence.

[Elaine Ross]

Further to this, Colin and I were just chatting and we both wonder if the change/damage to the spermathecae is down to the fact that the female had produced an eggsac. I cant see that many people would check the spermathecae of their spiders once they are already proven as female, they wouldnt see the need. We have 2 female's here that produced sacs recently so once they shed we will have a look to see if they have similar changes. Will update you on that when the time comes.

[Taki Tsonis]

Thanks guys, I guess I have a long wait ahead of me to check the next exuvium and I await your pics with great interest