Grammostola Pulchra sexing

[MiaCarmela]

Hi! My G Pulchra is about 2-3 inches now. When we first got him/her it was looking like it could be female. When it molted, the molt was slightly too damaged to tell for sure but was leaning slightly more towards female but this was a guess. But I’m really really not sure now. I’ve got some ventral pictures that have the epigastric furrow in but the quality and reflection is really bad. I’ve got a molt picture too but the abdomen is folded in half in the picture.

 

[Eighth Eye Blind]

FYI, I left you a note in your other post with the microscope pics.

Don't be fooled by external sexing. T's are great at cross-dressing. External characteristics will change from molt to molt. I know a lot of people swear they can tell just by looking, but long experience in the lab says that such opinions are barely better than a guess.

Looking at the fresh exuviae after a molt is the way to go and even then it's not anywhere near perfect. You can always be fooled by a bad prep - especially in young T's.

At the end of the day there will almost always be at least some uncertainty about the sex of a T until it reaches full maturity unless it's a species with obvious and consistent sexual dimorphism.

And then there's the problem of gynandromorphism. Don't even get me started on that . . . .

Good luck!

 

[Ratmosphere]

In the future, spread out the abdomen section of the molt so we could properly help sex the T. You will need to get a clear picture of the space between the first set of book lungs.