This beautiful spider is Emilia, a MEXICAN REDLEG TARANTULA.  Emilia has pinkish-red hairs on the third leg segment of each leg, counting from the end of her legs upwards (known as the tibia), unlike Ruby my Mexican red knee tarantula, which has orange/red hairs on the fourth leg segment or patella, often referred to as the 'knee' which is where the species gets its name! 

The pictures above show Emilia in her newly-moulted colours, with the rich pinkish-red of her leg hairs and especially her gorgeous velvety black hairs looking fantastic!  Before moulting her colours were quite drab, and if you compare the pictures above to those below you can clearly see the difference in the intensity of the colours, especially in the black velvet hairs of her legs.  When a tarantula moults it renews all of the hairs across its entire body, so they always come out of a moult looking much hairier and fluffier than they did beforehand as you can see above!

The picture below shows the scene which greeted me one morning in September 2008 following her overnight moult, and no matter how many times tarantulas in my collection moult it still takes me by surprise to find what looks like two tarantulas in their enclosure!

The 'second' tarantula, the one on the right in the picture above, is of course not a real tarantula but is simply Emilia's shed exoskeleton or exuvium.  I don't believe I will ever grow tired of seeing the results of tarantulas moulting no matter how many times I see it happen, or witness scenes like the one above after it has happened!  For a full description and sequence of photographs taken during the moulting process of one of my other tarantulas please check out Rosanna, my Chile rose tarantula's page, by clicking either on her name or here. 

The picture below is of Emilia's shed exuvium once it had been 'set', with the legs in fixed positions rather than the crumpled heap in which she left it after moulting as seen above!  I did this, as I do with all my tarantula exuvia, simply by placing the exuvium on a moistened paper towel in an airtight container overnight.  This makes them soft and easy to manipulate which allows me to carefully re-position the legs before allowing them to dry again into the new shape. 

It always amazes me how during the moulting process a tarantula manages to pull its entire new exoskeleton  free from the exuvium, legs and all, without damaging the exuvium or indeed its new body!  The way in which it gets its 'new' legs and body out of the old one is quite amazing.  It is described on Rosanna's page but basically when the tarantula is on its back and ready to moult it makes a slit at the front end of its 'head', or carapace as it is correctly known, which then pops open allowing the legs, fangs and other body parts to be pulled free from the exuvium.

The picture above shows Emilia's exuvium with the carapace removed, and you can clearly see the holes through which her legs and other body parts have been pulled free during the moult, it really is quite amazing how they can do this without damaging themselves or the exuvium!