Aphonopelma's behaviour totally changed after moult?

[Joanna Pendleton]

My Aphonpelma chalcodes, Rio, has completely changed her behaviour after her moult!

We had her for around 2 months before she moulted. During this time, she spent most of her time either in her hide or excavating huge piles of substrate out of her hide to the point where she was just sitting on bare at the bottom of her hide! Mountains of substrate, with webbing in were placed at the doorway!

Since her moult she hasn't bothered with her hide, or with diging burrows. Instead she wanders her cage endlessly, often climbing the sides as if in search of an exit. As far as I can tell the conditions are he same as usual in her cage (temp and humidity staying the same and have been careful to make sure water bowl full in this hot weather)

The only two explanations I can think of are:

1) her hide was changed as the plastic flower pot she used often ended up falling over, sometimes on her, as she insisted on excavating the soil around it! It was new and washed before being out in her cage, butb could it be disturbing her still? This was about a month ago.

2) The first month and a half/2 months that I had her she was in pre-moult. She didnt really eat much then either. Perhaps she was just burrowing in anticipation of her moult and wanting to prepare a safe place to moult?

Can anyone shed any light on which one of these, if any, it might be, and if she is ok!

Thank you

J
x

[Colin D Wilson]

Yes spiders change "personality" after moults this just seem to be the way things are

I have to ask the question though, since your spider has been roaming have you noticed any changes to the look of it's palps?? has it moulted and appears "leggy" with a slight change to the colour??
I seem to remember you saying the chalcodes was about 4 years old???, was it ever sexed for you (i can't recall you mentioning this)
There's a chance it could be a he (to add another explanation)
Any chance of a photo??

[Joanna Pendleton]

Hi Colin,

she is 4 years old, what a good memory you have! She was sold to me as a sub-adult from spider shop. Not sure if this means now she's moulted she is an adult or if she still has some growing to do. She's quite small. They sold her as a female and examining her moult seemed to confirm this though I am no expert. See what you think?



Rio is a slightly different colour but haven't noticed any difference to palps.

J x

[Colin D Wilson]

If you can post a picture of that quality of the inside of the moult, concentrating on the area of the abdomen between the book lungs (1st pair) then we can see if there's spermatecae apparent.
I would have placed that in the "probably male" pile myself .... often wrong with ventral sexing though

[Joanna Pendleton]

oooh, do you think that might be the deal, might I have a male and he's looking to mate? I hope not, I asked for a female so we could enjoy her for a long time! Just off to try and find one now. Think the moult is shriveled up now cos was about a month ago he she moulted but I'm sure I took one of the other side, so will have a look x

[Joanna Pendleton]

Not sure if these are any good. If not, do you think I'd be able to send the moult off to someone or will it be too dried out now? x

[Joanna Pendleton]

Just examined moult, still quite soft, apart from the legs, managed to grab another picture.

[Colin D Wilson]

well it looks like there's spermatecae there so ignore what i said and we'll just put it down to you having a girlie spider thats often off on a wander

[Joanna Pendleton]

haha, thanks Colin, glad she's a she after all!

If she was a sub adult before her moult is she an adult now? Not sure how long it takes them to get to adult stage, I thought it was quite a long time with Aphonopelma's, so thought it would take another few years. She seems quite small still to be an adult. around 3-4 inches i'd say (she doesn't give me the satisfaction of staying still for measuring! x

[Colin D Wilson]

They are quite slow growing as a genus, i've seen some nice 4-5 inch A chalcodes that the keepers have said were suitable for breeding so i would assume yours has a little way to go.

[James Box]

just a note: the nice thing about them is if they ARE male...you know it on the maturing moult, as they change colour completely. i was thinking male at first too...then remembered what my males looked like! you'd have also mentioned a dramatic colour change as well if yours had hooked out

[steve wilkins]

spidershop are rarely wrong when they sex their spiders, so i'm not surprised yours is female as you were told. regarding post-moult personality change, my brachy smithi was placid & ate like a horse until her last moult a couple of months ago- now she's nasty & eats only if she feels like it! no doubt she'll change again next moult.