Short answer: No, not all spiders build webs to catch food. Spiders follow two broad strategies. Web-building spiders spin silk traps and wait for prey to get caught. Hunting spiders find prey without a capture web, either by searching for it or by waiting in ambush. Almost all spiders still make silk, even the hunters, and quite a few species sit somewhere in between.
Researchers who compared spider communities around the world sorted spiders into a handful of “guilds” based on how they get food. Four guilds are web builders (orb webs, sheet webs, three-dimensional space webs, and sensing webs). The rest are hunters: ground hunters, ambush hunters, other active hunters, and specialists that feed on only one or a few kinds of prey. The same study points out that these groups are tendencies, not strict rules. Closely related spiders usually live in similar ways, but there are plenty of exceptions.
This guide walks through both lifestyles, compares them side by side, and then looks at the spiders that don’t fit neatly into either group.
How web-building spiders catch prey
A web builder’s main tool is its trap. The spider usually waits in the web or in a retreat beside it, and learns that something has landed mostly through vibrations in the silk. Different families build very different traps.
Orb webs
The classic wheel-shaped web is built by orb weavers. Construction follows a fairly fixed order. The spider first gets a bridge line across a gap, often by letting a thread drift on the breeze until it sticks. It then adds a Y-shaped frame, outer frame threads, and the radial “spokes.” Next comes a temporary, non-sticky spiral laid from the center outward, which works as scaffolding. Finally, the spider lays the sticky capture spiral from the outer edge inward, taking down the temporary spiral as it goes. The Australian Museum notes that the whole job can take around 30 to 45 minutes.
Sheet and hammock webs
Sheet webs are flat or dome-shaped mats of silk spread across grass, shrubs, or corners. In a hammock web, the spider rests underneath the sheet, which catches insects that walk, jump, or fly onto it. Some species add a tangle of threads above the sheet. Flying insects hit these “knockdown” threads and fall onto the sheet below, where the spider can reach them. Many small sheet-web spiders belong to the family Linyphiidae.
Tangle and gumfoot webs
Cobweb spiders, also called comb-footed spiders (family Theridiidae), build messy-looking three-dimensional webs. Many add vertical sticky threads that run down to the ground. When a walking insect bumps into one, the thread pulls free from the ground and lifts the insect off its feet. The spider then bites its catch and wraps it in silk, using a row of bristles on its back legs to pull the silk out. Those bristles give the family its “comb-footed” name.
For more on what webs are used for besides trapping food, see why spiders build webs.
How hunting spiders catch prey without a web
Hunting spiders don’t rely on a capture web. They still use silk in other ways, though: for egg sacs, burrow linings, shelters, and the safety lines that some species trail behind them. How they find prey varies a lot. Wolf, jumping, and lynx spiders hunt largely by sight. Ground spiders, huntsman spiders, and sac spiders rely more on vibration and touch.
Wolf spiders: ground hunters
Wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) roam the ground and either chase down small invertebrates or wait and ambush them. Some dig burrows; others shelter in leaf litter or low vegetation. They have eight eyes in three rows. Four small eyes sit along the front, and the four largest form a square on top of the head. A female carries her round egg sac attached to her spinnerets, and after the eggs hatch, the spiderlings ride on her back until they disperse.
Jumping spiders: visual stalkers
Jumping spiders (family Salticidae) hunt in daylight. They creep toward prey, then leap onto it. Before jumping, they fix a silk safety line, which lets them climb back if they miss. Their large front-facing eyes work a bit like a small camera: they see fine detail over a narrow field of view and can judge distance. For an animal this small, that level of detail is unusual, although it is still well below human sharpness. If you want to know how eye size and placement help with identification, see spider with big eyes identification.
Ambush hunters: crab spiders and burrow dwellers
Some hunters barely move at all. Crab spiders (family Thomisidae) sit still on flowers, leaves, or bark and grab visiting insects with their spiny front legs. Some can shift color to match their surroundings. Females of the goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia), for example, can change between white and yellow over a few days, and the change is reversible.
Burrowing spiders such as trapdoor spiders wait at the entrance of a silk-lined burrow. Some run silk or twig trip-lines out from the burrow, so they can feel prey walking nearby, then rush out to grab it.
Image prompt: Realistic natural-history macro photograph of a white crab spider (family Thomisidae) resting on a white daisy-type flower, front two pairs of legs longer and held open sideways in the typical crab-like ambush pose, exactly eight legs, compact rounded abdomen, soft natural daylight, shallow depth of field, no prey, no human hands, accurate spider anatomy, no exaggerated size, no text.
Web builders vs hunters at a glance
The table below shows general tendencies. Individual species can break these patterns.
| Feature | Web-building spiders | Hunting spiders |
|---|---|---|
| How prey is caught | Prey gets stuck or tangled in a silk trap | Prey is chased, stalked, or ambushed |
| Main way of sensing prey | Mostly vibrations through the silk | Varies: sight in wolf and jumping spiders; vibration and touch in many ground, huntsman, and sac spiders |
| Where you usually see them | In or beside the web, or in a retreat attached to it | On the ground, foliage, bark, flowers, or at a burrow entrance |
| Use of silk | Capture webs, retreats, egg sacs, wrapping prey | Egg sacs, shelters, burrow linings, trip-lines, safety lines |
| Examples | Orb weavers, sheet-web weavers, cobweb spiders | Wolf spiders, jumping spiders, crab spiders, trapdoor spiders |
Both groups end up feeding in much the same way. They subdue prey with a venomous bite, sometimes after wrapping it in silk. Then they release digestive fluid onto or into the prey and drink the liquefied tissue. Spiders eat a lot of insects, which is part of why spiders are important in gardens, farms, and wild habitats.
Spiders that don’t fit neatly into either group
Some of the most interesting spiders blur the line between trapping and hunting.
Bolas spiders
Bolas spiders belong to the orb-weaver family, but adult females have given up the orb web. Instead, a female hangs a single short thread with a sticky blob at the end. She releases chemicals that imitate the sex pheromones of certain moths, so male moths fly toward her looking for a mate. When one comes close, she swings the sticky “bolas” at it. Research on the American genus Mastophora found that a few moth species make up most of the catch. In Australia, bolas spiders of the genus Ordgarius use the same basic method.
Net-casting spiders
Net-casting spiders (family Deinopidae) hang head-down from plants at night, holding a small square net of woolly silk between their front four legs. When an insect walks underneath, the spider stretches the net and drops it over the prey. They also strike at insects flying past. Large forward-facing eyes help some species see in very low light.
Fishing spiders
Fishing spiders (genus Dolomedes) live along ponds and streams. They rest at the water’s edge with their legs touching the surface and feel the ripples made by insects that fall in. They can run across the water to grab prey and can also dive, carrying a thin layer of air around the body that lets them stay underwater for several minutes. Aquatic insects make up most of their food, but tadpoles and very small fish are also taken.
Social spiders
Most spiders live alone. Only about 25 species are considered permanently social. Their members share a colony web, capture prey together, feed together, and care for young as a group. These species come from several unrelated families, including genera such as Anelosimus and Stegodyphus, which means group living has evolved more than once.
Spiders that hunt other spiders
Some hunters specialize in eating other spiders and will enter another spider’s web to find them. White-tailed spiders and assassin spiders do this, and some Portia jumping spiders use stealth and disguise to stalk web-building spiders.
Using web or no web as an identification clue
Whether a spider sits in a web or wanders without one is a useful early clue, but it is only one clue. A spider resting at the center of an orb web is very likely an orb weaver. A spider running across a floor with no web nearby is more likely a hunting species, but that alone doesn’t tell you the family. Combine it with your location, body shape, leg proportions, eye arrangement, and the place you found it. Our spider identification guide explains how to put those clues together.
Lifestyle also says nothing reliable about bite risk. Both web builders and hunters include harmless species and a small number of medically significant ones, and the risk depends on the species and region. For region-specific safety information, see the Spider Bite & Danger section. To explore more behavior topics, visit the Spider Behavior hub.
References
- Cardoso, P., Pekár, S., Jocqué, R., & Coddington, J. A. (2011). Global patterns of guild composition and functional diversity of spiders. PLoS ONE, 6(6), e21710. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021710
- Australian Museum. Spider webs. australian.museum
- Australian Museum. Prey capture and feeding. australian.museum
- Australian Museum. Wolf spiders. australian.museum
- Australian Museum. Net-casting spiders. australian.museum
- Oklahoma State University Extension. Jumping spiders. extension.okstate.edu
- A comparative analysis of the camera-like eyes of jumping spiders and humans. (2022). Vision, 6(1), 2. mdpi.com
- Insausti, T. C., & Casas, J. (2008). The functional morphology of color changing in a spider: development of ommochrome pigment granules. Journal of Experimental Biology, 211(5), 780. Journal of Experimental Biology
- Haynes Lab, University of Kentucky Department of Entomology. Aggressive chemical mimicry of prey pheromones (bolas spiders). uky.edu
- Missouri Department of Conservation. Spotted fishing spider. mdc.mo.gov
- Aarhus University, Spiderlab. Social spiders. bio.au.dk
- World Spider Catalog (2026). Trichonephila plumipes (Latreille, 1804). Natural History Museum Bern. wsc.nmbe.ch (accessed October 2026)
