Asking around on an insect forum called bug nation about when to expect her to start eating again (www.bugnation.co.uk) a nice fellow called David got me wondering about how I knew Dot was a lady spider... Um... Well... The man in the shop said she probably was...?
A little bit more info about Dot is that she was actually a RSPCA rescue spider who apparently came from a man who accidentally let her escape one day and his wife essentially told him, "It's me or the spider." The spider lost. As a rescue she was free to a good home and Josh, the other bug explorer, and I have been sharing her ever since.
But this got me thinking: what do I actually know about Dot? Well, I am sure she's a Chilean Rose Tarantula, Grammostola rosea, from her size (about 2 1/2 inches wide by 3 inches long) I know she is still a juvenile, I also know she's sometimes a little less docile than many people consider her species to be, and that's about it. David from the forum put me on to an interesting and useful article called How to determine the sex of your tarantula. Be warned though, it is incredibly geeky and does feature the line "until my face is bluer than a Haplopelma lividum' s legs!" No, me neither.
Still, from the article and the very helpful people on Bug Nation, it seems that the jury is currently out on the definite gender of Dot. The evidence points towards her being a her, but there is no definitive answer yet. I may still have to turn her name round the other way and start calling her Todd.
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