Ventral Gender Identification Attempt.

[Zaiaku]

Alright, Well I looked through quite a few threads and have seen many molt pictures and others of the underside of the T's. Say my little N. Chromatus is on the glass, what would I be looking for on the underside? I assume the general area to look is where you'd look on a molt yes? but what would I see male vs Female? and how old/big do they usually have to be for this method to work?


Edit/update: ok well she decided she'd be photogenic and give me a peek. I hope the pictures are clear enough. After reading the article MassExodus linked me I don't see any of the epiandrous fussilae, but then again this would literally be my first attempt at this and the T may be too young? Not sure. Please let me know what you guys think.

Edit/update #2 lol sorry about all the updates and such to this post. Guess I'm just excited to be actually diving into this. So after reading a few more articles about ventral gender identification, and a few youtube video (notably this one by jon3800

) I think my little N. Chromatus is Female. I would LOVE others view on this AND I definitely still plan to be opening up molt to check that out as well and will definitely post those up for scrutiny and conformation as well.

 

[MassExodus]

http://www.birdspiders.com/faq_sex.php Nice little write up on it

 

[Zaiaku]

so if i get a good look under my N. Chromatus i'm looking for the presence or lack there of little arch hair like spinnerets?

 

[MassExodus]

It basically looks like an upside down u or v. In sub adults and adult males over 3-4 inches or so, it becomes prominent. On smaller spiders, your ventral guess is as good as mine
ps. I'm horrible at vent sexing, there are much better people here to ask. Check out sexing threads on this forum. Get a clean, fresh molt, get a close up of the two pairs of booklungs, on the inside of the abdomen, focusing on the top pair, and if the spider is over three inches I can most likely tell you what gender it is. As I said though, there are people on this forum who seem to vent sex pretty accurately, so if you're impatient, post a close up, focused shot of the underside of the T, and someone can probably help you.

 

[Zaiaku]

I will absolutely try to get a good shot. but she (it's a she til i know for sure ) is rather shy. likes to scoot down into her lair anytime someone even walks into the room. active little bugger when she thinks no one is looking though! if i can catch a shot underneath with good lighting and focus i'll post it here and see what others think. thank you again that article was very informative. I personally would love to be able to sex a T both with vent and Molts. Here's to more research! lol Thanks again!