Tarantula mid molt
Tarantula mid molt
Here's another old picture from my vault. This is one of our Greenbottle blue tarantulas (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens). We spent the day watching this little guy molt from start to finish and took pictures of the whole process. You can see in this picture that he is laid out on his back on his molting malt. At this stage he has split from the carapace lengthwise down the sides and is currently pulling his legs out of the molt. We had two at the time and wanted to breed them but they both turned out to males.
Do males of this species die earlier than females? I'd read that male tarantulas native to my area die earlier than the females due to the hooks on their forelimbs (used for mating at sexual maturity) that interrupt their ability to extricate themselves from the old skin during molting.
Edit: I guess this is common to all tarantulas.... :(
https://www.tarantulaheaven.com/tarantula-mating-how-it-works/#:~:text=Males%20that%20reach%20sexual%20maturity,the%20end%20of%20their%20pedipalps.Yes unfortunately it's common to all tarantulas. Some species the males live longer than others but their sole purpose is mating. I believe this guy in the photo made it to 3-4 years old. He actually lost a limb and regrew it over several more molts.
That's got to be rough as an owner. I've wild caught a few, but only to show to friends. I put them back shortly after.