Instars

Is there any good way to tell what instar a T is in if no records were kept?

TheHonestPirate said:

Is there any good way to tell what instar a T is in if no records were kept?

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Why are you worried about instar? ? Usually that words only used for slings.

Only for the first few.

Yes. I have four slings. I have a b vagan that just molted to 3/4 inch I believe. I wanted to start keeping recorrecords now as I am really enjoying the hobby.

I have Poec regalis and fasciata that I hatched out during the summer. A few are just over an inch, the biggest are 3", most of them in between. Some species grow significantly with each molt, others are more modest. Even with the same species, 2nd instar slings from one sac can be larger than slings from another sac. Lots of variables.

Record keeping is fine, but it doesn't mean other people can duplicate the results, as there's so many differences in temps (day, night, and seasonal changes), feeding frequency, feeding amount, type of prey, etc. With crickets there's significant size differences between juveniles, some can be 50% larger, and to us they look similar. Adult female crickets have much more weight than adult males. Things to consider.

I used to keep close records of all my Ts and their instars but I hadnt backed up the information and lost it all, didn't have the heart for it after that. There is no way to calculate the instar of a spider without previous records unfortunately, there is no way to know the size jump each moult.