triangle spider

English

Noun

triangle spider (plural triangle spiders)

1. A small American spider (Hyptiotes cavatus) that lives among the dead branches of evergreen trees. It constructs a triangular web, or net, usually composed of four radii crossed by a double elastic fiber. The spider holds the thread at the apex of the web and stretches it tight, but lets go and springs the net when an insect comes in contact with it.

   Synonym: triangle weaver

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “triangle spider”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)