My pet tarantula kokopelli has just molted. I got this shot through the glass so she looks a bit blueish.
Here is a shot of her new exoskeleton from above. She is looking very rosy and fuzzy. She is a Chilean rose hair tarantula. The recent molting shows her full color nicely.
Here is the molted shell. She had to pull each of her legs and fangs out of the old shell.
To begin the molting process she had to pop off the skin over her head like some kind of lid.
Here is the top of her head skin. The little cluster towards the right are her tiny little eyes. They are only good for determining if it is day out, they do most of their seeing through all the tiny hairs on their legs.
This is the bottom of the molted shell.
This looks like something out of the predator movie.
These are the fangs, very sharp and powerful. Her venom is very weak but can leave a welt. They overpower their prey mostly by a strong bite. Fortunately Chilean rose hair tarantulas are very docile and rarely ever bite larger things like humans. Through their hair sensitivity they can tell if something is prey or a larger threat. She is used to being handled but if she ever did want to bite she could easily pierce through to the bone.
