Rose-haired Chilean Molt

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
gothsinpink said:
How often do tarantulas molt and does anyone know why they do it?
instead of having continuously growing internal skeletons arthropods have an external skeleton that must be discretely shed and regrown at a larger size

tarantula molt frequency varies with conditions and species but a not horrible general rule would look like this

1st year: 4-6 molts
2nd year: 2-3 molts
then it slows down to roughly 1 molt a year in it's middle years
if it's a male it generally doesn't molt again after reaching sexual maturity
with females it goes to every other to every thrid year then they die

that's for a tarantula with a 15-20 year lifespan, like Grammastola or Brachypelma genus

speed it up for 7-8 year lifespan medium tropical spiders

speed it up even more for some of the shorter lived tarantulas
 

Cirith Ungol

Ministry of Fluffy Bunnies
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
3,886
T's moult in order to grow or to regrow limbs and to some extent even surface organs if those have been damaged. That way they can regrow completely removed legs for example.

They moult depending on their size, age and species. Small slings (spiderlings) may moult as often as every 3-4 weeks whereas adults may moult only as often as every 2 years. So the smaller the spider the more frequent it will moult. The time between moults will also be affected by the temperature at which the invert is kept, as well as the ammount of food it has ingested.
 

knottyduke

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
97
Both of these replies are extreamly accurate. There are many species of inverts that do this.

Its not just tarantulas and spiders.
 
Top