John Peters, Exoskeleton (JUNIOR 2024)

This is the exoskeleton of a rain spider that had recently molted. I was lucky enough to come across the shed skin in such an untouched state, retaining all of its original features. In addition to the somewhat rare chance of coming across this, the shell of the head was still attached to the body. This is a very rare occurrence, as spiders, when shedding their skin, will essentially crack open the top part of its body then crawl out, but from what I observed, it seems that this one had crawled out from where one of the rear legs were, keeping the entirety of the head in perfect condition.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.