Spider web
![Opadometa fastigata weaving the web. See the silk coming from the spinneret glands located at the tip of the abdomen.](/Images/godic/202501/31/Opadometa_fastigata_weaving_the_web-Kadavoor-2015-08-20-0012512.jpg")
![Spiral orb webs in Karijini, Western Australia](/Images/godic/202501/31/Spiral_Orb_Webs2513.jpg")
![Garden Orbweaver with beetle prey caught in its web](/Images/godic/202501/31/Garden_orbweaver_with_prey2513.jpg")
![Clearly visible spider silk production](/Images/godic/202501/31/Spider_holding_on_to_its_prey2513.JPG")
A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word coppe, meaning "spider") is a device created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets.
Spider webs have existed for at least 100 million years, as witnessed in a rare find of Early Cretaceous amber from Sussex, southern England. Insects can get trapped in spider webs, providing nutrition to the spider; however, not all spiders build webs to catch prey, and some do not build webs at all. "Spider web" is typically used to refer to a web that is apparently still in use (i.e. clean), whereas "cobweb" refers to abandoned (i.e. dusty) webs. However, "cobweb" is used to describe the tangled three-dimensional web of some spiders of the theridiidae family. While this large family is also known as the tangle-web spiders, cobweb spiders and comb-footed spiders, they actually have a huge range of web architectures.