spiderlet
nounEtymology From spider + -let.
1
A baby spider.
- The most curious of all are the ground spiders like the Lycosae which drag the egg sac around attached to the posterior end of the abdomen, or in some cases held by the chelicerae. When these latter hatch the young spiderlets climb on to the mother and let her carry them about.1947 May, Walter Janer, “[Biology] The Life of Spiders”, in Bulletin of the American Association of Jesuit Scientists, Eastern Section, volume XXIV, number 4, page 112:
- The giant orb-weaving spider Nephila clavipes stands guard over her eggs, which are fastened to a leaf. Until the spiderlets hatch, she lets her 8-foot web go untended.1960, Ralph Buchsbaum, Lorus J[ohnson] Milne, with Mildred Buchsbaum and Margery Milne, “The Spiders and Their Kin (Class Arachnida)”, in Living Invertebrates of the World (The World of Nature Series), London: Hamish Hamilton, page 244:
4 more examples
- On being questioned by the others as to what might be the nature of these webs, I explained to the others that an oft-repeated statement in natural history books is that very young spiders on hatching will frequently pay out long strands of silk from their spinnerets until the wind catches them and they eventually become airborne, sometimes being transported many miles and even, as I seemed to recall, far out to sea on occasion. […] Spiders can and do at times produce vast lengths (in proportion to their size) of web material at little expense to their own metabolism, and I visualized the little spiderlets, wherever they might be, continuing to emit their silken trails during their airborne journey as the wind broke and blew the first ones away.1964, Craig Phillips, quotee, “Angel’s Hair”, in The UFO Evidence, Washington, D.C.: The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena:
- When little spiders, or spiderlets, hatch, they look like full-grown spiders except that they are smaller and are very pale.1968, Bertha Morris Parker, “Spiders”, in The New Golden Treasury of Natural History, New York, N.Y.: Golden Press, Western Publishing Company, Inc., →LCCN, page 127:
- Hushabye, darlings, mama’ll get dinner / So sweet little fledglings won’t get any thinner. Rockabye, rocklings, roc, roc, roc a bye. Spiders bring squiggly worms, small as your eyelash. Salmon catch minnows, quick as a fly flash. Hairy red spiders give spiderlets lice. Cats bring their kittens home little grey mice.1969, Madeleine L’Engle, “The Roc”, in Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, →LCCN, page 37:
- I soak off their labels, wash them till they gleam and glitter, dry them upside down in a rack, plug their mouths with tissue against dust and web-weaving spiderlets, and then sort them according to hue and shape—burgundy, claret, rhine, or italianate oddball—before stowing them away in compartmented cartons liberated from a liquor store’s garbage.1980, John Graves, “[Coping] Trash as Treasure”, in From a Limestone Ledge: Some Essays and Other Ruminations About Country Life in Texas, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 65:
2
Rare A stolon of a spider plant.
- Horticulturists know that a pampered spider-plant will not produce its offshoot stolon (its spiderlets); only when its soil is not rich and fertilizer is withheld (i.e., the spider-plant feels starved and threatened) will it start producing stolon in profusion.1983, S[hlomo] Giora Shoham, “[Replenish the Earth and Subdue It] Da Capo: The Next Generation”, in Sex as Bait: Eve, Casanova, and Don Juan, Brisbane, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, →ISBN, page 59:
- If you have a spider plant, prune off spiderlets (miniature plants or offsets at the branch tips), place them in water until they show roots, and then transplant. […] Grow more plants by rooting spiderlets (the mother plant’s extensions) in soil or water.1998, Bill Marken, The Editors of the National Gardening Association, Container Gardening For Dummies®, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, pages 167 and 170:
1 more example
- What’s fun about the spider plant are its babies—it shoots off little “mini spiders” that trail down around the edges. It you clip off these offspring and set them in water, they’ll sprout roots, and you can turn them into new plants. BASIC CARE In order for the spider to produce “spiderlets,” it needs enough light.2006, Mary Kate Hogan, “Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)”, in 37 Houseplants Even You Can’t Kill, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 80: