Hello again, and welcome to this month's spider diaries !

Lots of piccies this time round...

And what an exciting month it has been. Little 'Legs', the new Sri Lankan ornamental has escaped (twice), and been re-captured immediately both times, due to the wonders of night vision camera monitoring ! The offending air holes have now been made smaller, the spider has been fed lots so it gets bigger, and problem solved. It has to be said, for all the warnings I read about Poecilotheria, Legs has been perfectly behaved so far and hasn't rushed me once yet, and would far rather hide than run and bite, bless her... still - give her time :)

Ginny, who NEVER drinks water out of the bowl provided has been seen doing so twice this week, and has kicked off even more hair, which suggests it might be time for her annual moult - possibly her post-ultimate. Needless to say, she isn't eating, and has ignored all the locusts and cockroaches I've been sending in to meet her...

Little Fluffy has also managed a 3rd instar moult, and has got a whole 3mm bigger ! Not exactly growing at the same rate as Binky, but Peruvian Orange-stripe T's don't, so that's all fine. She was moved to another tank a couple of days ago, and has found the water and the burrow, and seems very happy.

Zebedee did a fantastic upside-down lunge type thing to capture her latest deaths' head roach, so she is one fat, happy spider at the moment too, and has stopped trying to pull my feeder tube down to my great relief. It is enough to shake anyone's belief in the power of aquaurium sealant when you see a 7"+ spider attempting to remove it !

But the REAL star of today's diary, as she so often is, is Binky, who has moulted yet again, and for the first time, chosen daylight as a good time to do it - therefore - we have reasonable photos !!

Binky moults 1 / 2 show her getting ready to moult - lying flat on her back on the moulting mat she has just spun, and then later half way out. Alas, with this one, I focussed on the wrong set of legs, but its the best in-moult pics we've had so far of any of my spiders, so I am pleased.

Also attached is a pic of her taken today, 2 days after moult, where its all dried out, and she is feeling and looking much better. Resplendant in fact...2 things to note: 

1) She has changed colour. Binky is now primarily jet black, whereas she has only been grey and / or brown before - so - adult colours coming through nicely... Oh - she's VERY big now, and has put on at least 6 cm since last time, bringing her legspan to just over 20 cm.

2) I have at last had a chance to examine her exvium, and am vaguely confident to report that 'she' is, in fact, a 'he. Yes, Binky is probably a young man, it would seem, which is a dreadful shame in that he will only live 2 years+, and not 18+ as he would were he female... so - all surprises there ! On the plus side, it is now more likely that he will attain the 11 inches+ that these spiders are capable of growing to - so new tank time soon, I feel !

I also managed to get his exuvium out while it was still soft, and was able to arrange it into 'happy spider pose before it hardened for the last photo - amazing... also amazing was the urticating hairs that fell off on my while i was doing just that. What a unique feeling !

And that's it from me and the girls for another month. Next month, I'll try and get some funky pics of baby pokie doing her (exceptionally fast) thing.

Take care everyone

B, F, G, L, Z, and J

PS - For those of you who follow JW's musical outpourings with any regularity, there are new aNToINe nECkLaCe songs up at myspace . Do have a listen, and leave me your comments should you feel so inspired !!!