OK, so some of you may have seen the Gooty UK thread where a female Gooty was being offered as original owner moving away. I picked the spider up on Wednesday evening and just collected the tank and everything in it (including the spider) as the owners sister had kindly brought it up a little nearer to where I lived. There was a molt in the cork tube but it was too dry/brittle to do anything with but I am almost certain that she is in fact a he.....very large approx 6" maybe more and leggy with a small abdomen (I know the latter could be down to the molt though) I only have a couple of pics which I will include below but there was some behaviour last night at 4am to be precise that leads to me to be almost certain it's a male without getting the underside shots. The tank I re housed i to is next to my bed and I was woken to rapid tapping noises. Checked what he/she was doing and it was strumming the pedipalp against most of the surfaces in the tank. So, getting to the point now.....
A) I understand this strumming is only performed by the male (when looking for a bit of spider love) is this correct?
B) The same tank was used to house my female that tragically died, so is it possible that the strumming is due to it sensing the presence of another spider? It was cleaned but the same logs retained etc.
C) Do females strum pedipalps?
D) Is this something that all spiders will do if they think k there is another in the enclosure....see point B) above.
There is no sign of a sperm web anywhere as was literally in the tank only a matter of hours before it woke me up. Moved to a different room now btw as I am knackered!
I will update with pics of the underside as soon as I can.
A) I understand this strumming is only performed by the male (when looking for a bit of spider love) is this correct?
B) The same tank was used to house my female that tragically died, so is it possible that the strumming is due to it sensing the presence of another spider? It was cleaned but the same logs retained etc.
C) Do females strum pedipalps?
D) Is this something that all spiders will do if they think k there is another in the enclosure....see point B) above.
There is no sign of a sperm web anywhere as was literally in the tank only a matter of hours before it woke me up. Moved to a different room now btw as I am knackered!
I will update with pics of the underside as soon as I can.