Too young for vent sexing? Help required!

[Andrew Ferguson]

I never got the chance to examine the moulted skin as it had shrivelled by the time I had chance to retrieve it. Today Smiffy gave me a good view of its underside. So can any of the experts please tell me do we keep the name Smiffy or does it need to be permanently changed to Gloria?
p.s. Gloria is my wifes name for the tarantula?



Close Up

[James Box]

ironically, i think ventral sexing (by the method i mention below) is more accurate when done on the young...but of course the only 100% accurate way is to wait til it's a bit older and get the exuvium...
but some have had success looking for a little notch or something in the general area that females lack. however, if it's covered in setae, as yours looks to be, it can make it hard to tell.

[Colin D Wilson]

Name change?.....hmmmmm

Andrew you could have a look here and have a guestimate yourself it's always fun to have a bash and get it right when a moult confirms it.

http://www.birdspiders.com/faq_sex.php

Colin

[Andrew Ferguson]

Thanks for the link Colin. I've just taken a quick look and I think I'll need to do some studying. Now is not the right time as I'm up at 4:30 in the morning and I'm off to bed!

[Kate Arbon]

Based on what my B. smithi male looks like I'd guess yours is female, but I'm not 100% because my guy is much bigger than yours.

[Louise~Nichols]

Andrew...I reckon you have a little girly there. There's no sign of a notch, and the area between the booklungs seems quite nicely spaced, also the darker area usually over the ventral zone of juvenile male Brachys (looks like a sharp angled pyramid rising from the horizontal line of the vent) isn't present. Those are the signs I look for in my young Brachys anyhow, and then I sex from exuvium to back that up.

[Mark Lynes]

Brachys are amongst the easiest of tarantulas to sex. I have about 70 (including about 14 smithi) and routinely sex them ventrally, I never get it wrong so long as I remember to do it before I've had too much wine

Yours looks female.

Mark

[Andrew Ferguson]

Thanks everyone for the replies. So let me be the first to introduce......Gloria, my Brachypelma smithi.




p.s. if she turns out to be a boy, I'll change the name back to Smiffy. A lot easier than by deed poll