Out With The Old, In With The New! :)

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:45:23 +0000

This is Rocoe's moulted exoskeleton! Isn't this fascinating?!!

Roscoe's New Clothes

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:45:35 +0000

This morning I took a peek at my darling little spider friend who lives on our porch and noticed that during the night she'd shed her skin! (There is a picture in a note above) This molting is actually called "ecdysis", and is something that happens in many invertebrates.

Roscoe continues to grow and although I keep called him a male at first, this spider is most definitely a female, as the males of this species are much smaller. She will continue to grow and is probably sending out pheremones with a hopeful mate to appear sometime soon! Let's cross our fingers, I'm very excited about the upcoming egg sac! :D

If you would like to know more about spiders molting, Wiki has a good page about this process here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecdysis

Photos, videos and docs of Janet Brien, with the keywords: "shedding"

Out With The Old, In With The New! :)

Roscoe's New Clothes