This absolutely beautiful spider is a female PERUVIAN PINKTOE TARANTULA, sometimes known as the PERUVIAN PURPLE PINKTOE TARANTULA due to its purplish colouration which is best seen in natural light.
I have a couple of these wonderful spiders named Charlotte and Spinderella. They are one of my absolute favourite species to show children in schools and at parties etc. as they are so beautiful!
As you can see from these pictures they are easily one of the hairiest, fluffiest spider species in my collection! These spiders originate from the warm tropical forests of the north-western Amazon rainforest, most commonly found in the Peruvian Amazon. Like other pinktoe tarantulas they are incredible climbers due to their arboreal (tree-dwelling) way of life and they certainly do have distinctively pink toe tips as you can see here:
As you can see here, babies certainly start life a lot smaller than they end up being as adults! Unusually, many pinktoe tarantula species also start life with jet black toes and pale pink/orange coloured legs, whereas as adults they will have pink toes and darker coloured legs - a quite bizarre change!!!
Like all spiders tarantulas have to moult as they grow. Here is Spinderella's moulted exoskeleton (exvuia) following a moult:
Here is the underside and you can clearly see in the second picture just how large and black & shiny her fangs are!
Here are pictures of the exuvia with the carapace (head area) in place and then removed - you can clearly see the holes through which Spinderella has pulled her new exoskeleton. No matter how many times I witness this process it never ceases to amaze me!
