how do you sex a tarantula?

i'm thinking about getting a T in the near future, mabye when i get back from jersey.

how is it done?

The best way, wait until they molt and look for spermatacae (sp?). Otherwise you look underneath them for epis...something furrow. There's a few guides online about how to do it.

try this link
clickety

and this one aswell

clickety

theres a few ways the best one is to wat until you get a good ol cast like andrew said

Its called an epigastric furrow. You can usually see it on the exuvium if the sp is of 2" or larger, its like a little leaf between the book lungs. Although in some species when they get to about 2" leg span you can visually see the furrow if they're kind enough to show you their underside. It looks like a slit in the abdomen.

Also males tend to be more 'leggy' than females

There's always a slit in the abdomen; it's just knowing what structure to look for.

i think there are pics in the first link of mine that show them

IHeartMantids wrote:

There's always a slit in the abdomen; it's just knowing what structure to look for.

Good point i should have been clearer. we have correctly sexed some of our juvi's premolt, the females slit looks a little more open than a males. But i guess when you have got a trained eye through keeping so many you know exactly what to look for without the exuvium.

But the exuvium is best way to check if its in good contition

Lori can tell with hardly a glance -- I still have no idea what she's looking at. If I have a large enough molt I can usually tell (but some males have "accessory" parts that look a lot like the female's pouch).

lol accesory parts.
i find it hard to tell aswell, but it dunt make too much difference to me as im not breeding them...yet

right, here i go again.

The slit is apparent on males as it is on females, yes, but from a specimen size of about 2" leg span the slit between the booklungs can have an open appearance, thus indicating a female, although i should point out that this is not apparent with all species.

Take the first link posted by lycan.. perfect example, the females 'slit' on the left has an open appearance. as in, you can see that it is an opening! where as the male's is less distinct.

What she said.

thanks guys. it's a lot more complicated than scorps, eh?

Pretty much. That's why I'm a scorp guy.

IHeartMantids wrote:

Pretty much. That's why I'm a scorp guy.

i don't know if i'll be a scorp guy much longer........ spiders are really starting to appeal to me.

traitor!!!!!

lycanlord19 wrote:

traitor!!!!!

lol, don't worry. i'll always love me scorps.

nowt wrong with having both. Personally my heart will always belong to scorpions but i must admit with my hubby being into tarantula's, I kinda really like them now.

LadyRiotControl wrote:

nowt wrong with having both. Personally my heart will always belong to scorpions but i must admit with my hubby being into tarantula's, I kinda really like them now.

i think T's are cool, but it's the true spiders i really like.