Spider terms

Abdomen - the second body section

Advanced - retaining fewer ancestral characteristics

Anterior - towards the front

Araneomorphs - 'modern' spiders

Basal - retaining 'primitive' features not present in more 'advanced' families

Calamistrum - a row of toothed bristles on the metatarsal segment of the last leg, used to comb out cribellate silk

Cephalothorax - the first body section - head and thorax fused together

Cribellate silk - see cribellum

Cribellum - a flat spinning plate covered with thousands of tiny spigots. Together, these spigots produce a multi-stranded, 'wool-like' cribellate silk

Dragline silk - provides the spider's safety line and is also used to make the frame and radial lines of the orb web.

Mantispid lacewings - insects of the Family Mantispidae - lacewings that look like preying mantises

Mygalomorphs - trapdoor spiders and their relatives - 'primitive' spiders

Pedicel - slim waist between cephalothorax and abdomen

Posterior - towards the back

Primitive - retaining many ancestral characteristics

Rugose - having many wrinkles or ridges

Spigots - hollow, hair-like silk outlets on the spinnerets

Spinnerets - silk spinning organs