Advice on this microscope picture

[MiaCarmela]

I’m pretty sure this picture doesn’t really show anything and actually may not even be from the correct area but someone told me they thought it was female and I have no idea what they were looking at. This is a G pulchripes molt under a microscope that is about 1-1.5 inches. Sexing seems like a long shot but I have no idea.

 

[Eighth Eye Blind]

Sadly, you're not really looking at the right thing and you're at way too much magnification. Ideally, you want to use a binocular dissecting scope with variable mag and good depth-of-field but use what ya got if you can make it work.

Be aware that this is hard. Sexing requires a good amount of experience and even then people get it wrong. In fact, what you're looking for varies from species to species so you really need both an expert eye and expert knowledge to sex a T.

For example, here are pics of the spermathecae from females of three different species of T:

On your G. pulchripes they'll look like type c with two well-separated receptacles. Note that it might not be this cut and dried when you actually see it. These pics were done with preps performed by professional scientists. What yours end up looking like could be completely different. Don't despair if you end up not being able to tell anything from a molt.

Here's an image showing you where to look on the exuviae. The shape outlined in yellow is what you're after.

To get the exuviae into this position you need to be quick and get it away from your T before they try to eat it. You then need to gently unfurl the abdomen so that you can see the proper area before it starts to harden and get brittle. If it's already gotten hard you can try soaking it in some warm soapy water to soften it back up again.

Obviously, the bigger the T the easier it is. Trying to sex a juvi is often unrewarding as their sex organs change in appearance as they age. Forget about slings completely. It simply can't be done with babies. For a T the size of yours it's gonna be a pretty big ask to get it right. You may have to wait until it grows up a little more before you can really tell.

There are lots of much better descriptions and guides on the net for doing this than I can give you. It takes time and practice to get it right so don't get discouraged. You'll get the hang of it eventually. It's not an easy job for even the most experienced keeper.

Good luck!

 

[plessey]

As far as I can see from the pics, the slit sensilla and arthrodial membrane are easy enough to see but that's about it really. There does appear to be a structure that looks like it could be a gonopore but certainly no sign of any spermathecae, uterus externus or bursa copulatrix (although at 1.5" the bursa copulatrix wouldn't be defined enough anyway) in those photos.