Recently moulted spider and exoskeleton

[Bruce Williams]

Stony Stratford, Bucks (1st May 2010).

Although I didn't actually witness the moult I have no doubt that this partial exoskeleton (the abdomen is missing) belongs to this spider. It was just a few inches away on the adjacent fence rail.

Help with identification appreciated:



Note the tiny barklouse nymph next to the rear leg of the exoskeleton (poss. Mesopsocus sp.).

Bruce

[The Woodman]

Philodromus sp. perhaps?

[Wild-Woman]

Interesting shots Bruce. The actual moult must have been interesting to watch. I wonder how long it takes?

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks Woodman - yes it has the right look-and-feel.....I wondered if the dark colouring might be due to its recent moult? I should also have mentioned that the spider was very lethargic.

Thanks Jules - Interesting question - they are clearly vulnerable during moult - in this case the spider had turned on to its back to moult so I would expect (unless there were problems) for it to have been a reasonably quick process. Anyone have info on this?

Bruce

[frits_b]

I've been lucky enough to have witnessed three moultings so far. I'd say the actual process of crawling out of the old skin took about 20 minutes.
I think it takes another half an hour of so before the spider seems to behave normally again.

Of course for an observer it's hard to judge how long the spider is more vulnerable than usual.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for that info Frits.

Apologies but I was wrong when I said earlier that this spider flipped onto its back to moult, a closer look at the image shows clearly that it was right-way-up, see:



Bruce

[C J Smallman]

As a keeper of nearly 40 tarantulas 20-30 mins would be a good avarage for a moult. When they are spiderlings they seem to sail through with no problems but with age it becomes more hard work upto 2 hours in some cases and a good week waiting to harden up and recover.

Most moults are done on their back although there are cases where they do it the right way round thats when us arachnophiles start to panic

Chris.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for the info Chris.

Forty tarantulas eh! I've gone along to a few herpetological shows and drooled over some of the specimens on show but sadly have been unable to talk my wife into having them in the home/shed or garage.

Bruce