Meanings
- not comparableSpider-eating.
In the alternative predator defence hypothesis, the signal receivers are the spiders’ predators such as wasps, parasitic flies, praying mantises, arachnophagic jumping spiders that have acute visual senses or birds (Wise 1993).
2009 August 7, Kensuke Nakata, “To be or not to be conspicuous: the effects of prey availability and predator risk on spider’s web decoration building”, in Animal Behaviour, volume 78, number 5, Amsterdam: Elsevier, published November 2009, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1256, column 12 more examples
Though ordinarily arachnophagic (Jackson & Brassington 1987; Jackson & Rowe 1987) a female P. phalangioides will feed her young, (Bonizzi 1869; pers. obs.) so the mother was maintained with her brood until a further cocoon was laid.
1996 September, Paul James Yoward, “Rearing Methods”, in Spider Sperm Competition: The Conduit / Cul-De-Sac Hypothesis - A Route to Understanding or a Dead End?, York, North Yorkshire: University of York, Department of Biology, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Jan 2026, chapter 2 (Sperm Precedence Measurements in Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin) (Araneae, Pholcidae)), page 67At present, they are mainly divided into two types: kleptoparasitic (Plokiophilidae, the genus Ranzovius Distant, 1893 of Miridae, Arachnocoris) and arachnophagic (Emesinae) (Soley et al. 2011; Mercado and Santiago-Blay 2015; Schuh and Weirauch 2020).
2024 June 20, Yannan Ma, Sile Du, Dong Ren, Yunzhi Yao, “A new species of Nabidae (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Cimicomorpha) from Dominican amber”, in Historical Biology […], volume 37, number 7, Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis, published 2025, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 1630–1631Synonyms: arachnophagous, araneophagic, araneophagous
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSpider-eating.
Origin
From arachno- + -phagic. Piecewise doublet of araneophagic.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
arachnophagic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arachnophagic
“arachnophagic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arachnophagic. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “arachnophagic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arachnophagic.
Source: arachnophagic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.