B smithii 5th & 6th instars

[Pavel]

Surprising to me at least was that three really was not a great deal of time passage between these two instars (only about 1 month) -- especailly compared to the time between the 4th and 5th instars. Due the limits of this forum -- seems I can only upload one pic per post & I don't feel like uploading to photobucket at the moment, I'll post the pic of instar 5 here and instar 6 in the next post. Coloring has increased a bit more. Lil bugger is quite fat here as it has just finished munching its 2nd baby cricket

B smithii 5th instar fat.JPG

[Pavel]

Main difference at this point, besides another size increase, is it seems to be much furrier than in the previous instar. Still quite small. Leg span if stretched out is probably about 2cm (so still under an inch)

B smithii 6th instar sm.jpg

[beckdg]

the head/thorax seem to have filled in a little and some extra fur. BUT WOW what a difference in appearance. one might not even know they were related let alone the same spider with such subtle differences. i mean we would figure it out, but say my mother for instance. mom would have no clue.