trap-door spider

8.3

A spider that makes a silk-lined underground nest with a camouflaged lid

noun
/træp-dɔr ˈspaɪdər/

: araña de trampa

Many trap-door spiders create their homes in sandy soil.

Examples

Scientists observed a trap-door spider constructing its silk-lined nest with surprising speed.
The trap-door spider cleverly hides in its burrow, waiting to ambush prey.
Unlike other spiders, the trap-door spider builds a camouflaged lid for its underground home.
The trap-door spider is known for its unique hunting technique.
The trap-door spider quickly ambushed its prey as it crawled near the concealed entrance of its nest.
When exploring the desert, we spotted a trap-door spider carefully hiding beneath its hinged silk lid.
As I walked through the garden, I noticed a trap-door spider waiting patiently inside its silk-lined burrow.

Synonyms

Ctenizidae

vstrap-door spider

Specialized

9.9

A family of large spiders that dig burrows with trapdoor entrances

is one species that makes a silk lined nest with a hinged lid

Surface Forms

trap-door spider singular

trap-door spiders plural

Morphology

trap-door + spider

The noun is compositionally transparent: a 'trap-door spider' is readily understood as a spider associated with a trap-door (i.e., a spider that builds/uses a hinged trap-like door). This follows a common noun+noun naming pattern for animals and is inferable from knowing 'trap'/'door' and 'spider', so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would understand the meaning.

Etymology

Trap-door spider comes from how the spider lives: it builds an underground nest with a camouflaged trap-door lid. The spider hides behind the lid and jumps out to catch food, so the name means a spider that lives under a 'trap-door'.