Hi everyone :)

Now so far, in the spider diaries, I've only sent you 'nice' pictures - that's spiders looking their best, and generally majestic and wonderful.

For the faint of heart, however, perhaps best not to look at the latest batch of invertebrate photo fun, as I have included some moult shots, which, whilst massively interesting, aren't necessarily the most lovely of things to look at...

So - little Binky, who gets ever less little as time goes on, has had her 7th birthday, and has moulted into a lovely 10 cm spider - that's 2.5cm up on where she was yesterday.

Please excuse the dreadful quality of the 'mid-moult' picture - I didn't want to stress her while she was in the middle of it all, so it was very dark, and I couldn't focus properly, but there she is, trying to get all 10 of her various appendages out of her old body... notice how white she is - her new carapace hasn't yet hardened...

But in the other pics, its 2 hours later, and she's all fine, and looking really quite excellent, and had got through another moult with no 'getting stuck' problems... well done her !

The last pic is the body she climbed out of, called an exuvium. Note her little black fangs, and the clever segmentation on what used to be her underside...

I should at this point, offer anyone the chance of 'opting out' of the spider diaries, should you be put off - just let me know !

But I do find it all fascinating.... she's too big for that tank now, so me and Andy moved her into her new one last night - she was a good girl indeed, and didn't run all over us, or do anything aggressive - just when nudged slightly with a paintbrush just walked calmly from one tank to the other, and then sat there and seemed fine about it all - pics of her new home coming soon...

Take it easy
JW