What does the spur on a male’s jaw do?

Holds the female’s fangs while mating

What is special about the centre of its web?

It is open: the spider cuts it out

What seems to help it tell water from land?

Polarised light reflected off the water

Stretch Spiders

Tetragnatha

Stretch spiders, also called long-jawed orb weavers, are the roughly 360 described species of the genus Tetragnatha, found around the world and mostly near water. They have long, slim bodies and very long jaws, rest stretched out along stems and build light orb webs in the evening. In Hawaii, one group gave up webs altogether and evolved the same set of colour forms again and again on different islands.

Also known as Long-jawed orb weaver, Long-jawed spider, Tetragnatha

Stretch spider abilities

By day flat along a stem
At rest it presses its body against a stem or grass blade and stretches its legs out in front and behind, turning into a thin line.
- Unlike most orb weavers, which pull their front legs in, Tetragnatha extend their legs when resting.
- Many species are silvery, brown or grey, colours that may blend in with reeds and grass.
- Scientists think the pose works as camouflage, but nobody has measured how well it fools birds or other predators.
Sources [1]
30–40 sticky spiral turns
In the evening it spins a light orb web, often by or over water, then cuts out the centre to leave an open hub.
- Webs range from flat (horizontal) to upright, wherever there is space between plants.
- One North American species spins 4 to 5 turns around the hub, a gap, then 30 to 40 turns of sticky spiral.
- At least one species picks a new spot each night, and the size of its web depends on the gap between plants.
- In Hawaii, web-building species on different islands evolved the same web designs on their own.
Sources [1, 7, 12]
Adults only grown-ups get long jawsStill debated
When stretch spiders mate, the male hooks his long jaws into the female’s, using a spur that holds her fangs.
- Male jaws are larger and stick out further than female jaws.
- The lock is so secure that females don’t need the extra mating plate most spiders have.
- Why male jaws are so long is still debated. A 2021 study found that fights between males were rare and suggested the jaws grow to fit larger females.
Sources [1, 4]
3 pairs of legs row on water
Dropped on a pond, a stretch spider doesn’t sink: it rows across the surface with 3 pairs of legs and heads for the nearest shore.
- In a study of Tetragnatha elongata, spiders rowed with the first 3 pairs of legs and dragged the 4th pair.
- They often swam a few circles first, then moved straight towards the closest bit of land.
- Light reflected from water is polarised. The spiders seem to use that pattern to tell water from shore.
- Getting off the water fast probably helps them avoid fish.
Legs used on water 4 pairs of legs
4th pair dragged, not rowing
Tetragnatha elongata, displaced onto a pond.
Sources [3, 10]
500+ published ballooning reports (all spiders)Still debated
Many young spiders let out silk threads that catch the wind and carry them to new homes. Stretch spiderlings are often said to do this, but we found no study that measured it.
- Scientists have published more than 500 observations of ballooning spiders since the 1600s.
- In tests, a small ballooning spider from the stretch spider’s family (Tetragnathidae) survived landing on fresh and salt water.
- On water it raised its legs or abdomen as sails, and used silk as an anchor to slow down.
Sources [11, 13]
Aquatic insects are key prey
Its webs catch small flies that hatch from the water, such as non-biting midges, crane flies and mosquitoes.
- Scientists read the DNA of prey inside Tetragnatha montana spiders from 10 streams.
- At more polluted streams, the spiders ate more non-biting midges (chironomids) and fewer other water-born flies.
- Because they eat insects from the water, shoreline spiders also pick up mercury from it. Scientists use them as living pollution monitors.
Sources [14, 15]
4 colour forms, evolved again and again
In Hawaii, the spiny-leg stretch spiders come in green, maroon, large brown and small brown forms, and each island evolved its own set.
- On the older islands, one spider of each colour form usually lives at the same site.
- Similar sets of forms arose both by spiders moving between islands and by new species evolving on each one.
- Tetragnatha kauaiensis and T. polychromata change colour as they grow, from green to maroon.
Sources [7, 8, 16, 17]
≈5 million years since Tetragnatha reached Hawaii
After reaching Hawaii, one group of stretch spiders stopped building webs and became wandering hunters with long, spiny front legs.
- Tetragnatha reached Hawaii about 5 million years ago and split into a web-building group and the “spiny-leg” group.
- Spiny-leg species have very long spines on their front legs and live in native forest.
- Without a web to save energy, these wandering hunters burn more energy at rest than their web-building relatives.
Sources [9, 18]

Tap a pin on the model or a part below.

8 eyes in 2 rows
- It has 8 small eyes in 2 rows. In most species the front middle pair is the largest.
- Web-building spiders like this one find prey mostly by feeling vibrations, not by sight.
- Its eyes still matter: a stretch spider dropped on water uses the pattern of light reflected off the surface to find its way to the shore.
Sources [1, 2, 3]
- The jaws (chelicerae) are long and stick forward, with rows of big teeth. They give the group its name: long-jawed orb weavers.
- Adult males have the biggest jaws, with a spur on the front that holds the female’s fangs while they mate.
- The jaws only grow extra long at the last moult, when the spider becomes an adult.
Sources [1, 4]
- Like almost all spiders, it has venom glands that open through its fangs. The venom is for subduing small insects.
- Males and females make strikingly different venoms: male venom has heavy proteins that female venom lacks.
- That difference between the sexes is bigger in Tetragnatha than in the related spiders scientists compared it with.
Sources [5]
- The palps are the short feelers beside the jaws. In adult males their tips are used for mating.
- Females have no epigynum, the hard plate that guides mating in most spiders. Scientists think the tight jaw lock does that job instead.
- A male recognises a female of his own species by chemicals on her silk.
Sources [1, 6]
2.6–13.8 mm female body length (N. America)
- The front half of the body carries the eyes, jaws, palps and all 8 legs under a hard shield called the carapace.
- In North America, adult females measure 2.6–13.8 mm without the legs, depending on the species. Males are usually a bit smaller.
- Even within one species, some adults can be twice the size of others.
Sources [1]
4 colour forms in Hawaii
- The long abdomen is often silvery, yellowish, brown or grey, which may help it blend in with stems.
- Hawaii’s spiny-leg stretch spiders come in 4 colour forms: green, maroon, large brown and small brown.
- One Hawaiian species, Tetragnatha kauaiensis, changes from green to maroon as it grows up.
Sources [1, 7, 8]
- Silk comes out of the spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen. Web builders make every main type of orb-weaver silk.
- The Hawaiian spiny-leg spiders, which no longer build webs, have lost the silk gland set used for sticky capture threads.
- A week after mating, a female may make several fluffy egg sacs and fix them to plants.
Sources [1, 9]
- At rest, a stretch spider holds its long front legs straight out ahead. Most other orb weavers pull them in and bend them.
- On water, the first 3 pairs of legs row in turns.
- Hawaii’s spiny-leg species have very long spines on their front legs, which help them hunt without a web.
Sources [1, 9, 10]
1 pair dragged behind on water
- The back legs point backwards along the stem while the spider rests, so the whole spider looks like one long line.
- When it moves across water, the 4th pair of legs is dragged behind instead of rowing.
- A ballooning spider from the same family was seen lifting its legs or abdomen into the wind to sail across water.
Sources [1, 10, 11]

Real stretch spiders

Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Some of them can repaint the 3D model.

Adult femaleLong, slim and silvery to brown or grey. Her jaws are long but shorter than a male’s.Spins the evening web and fixes several fluffy egg sacs to plantsA female Tetragnatha montana in Oxfordshire, England.. Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0
Adult maleUsually a bit smaller, with even longer, forward-pointing jaws and a spur that locks onto the female’s fangs.Finds a female of his own species by the chemicals on her silkA pair mating in Bulgaria: the male holds the female’s jaws with his.. Photo: Dimitǎr Boevski, CC BY-SA 4.0
Resting near a creek in Ohio, USA.Photo: CriticalDrinking, CC BY-SA 4.0
Tetragnatha laboriosa, a common North American species, in Texas.Photo: Alex Wild / Insects Unlocked, CC0
Tetragnatha extensa, found across the northern half of the world.Photo: Michel Langeveld, CC BY-SA 4.0
Tetragnatha extensa on a mock orange bush.Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0
SpiderlingA tiny, pale copy of its parents. The extra-long jaws only grow at the final moult.In cool places, young spiders spend the winter before growing upA young stretch spider in Bytom, Poland.. Photo: Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0
On a rock by the Avisio river in northern Italy.Photo: Syrio, CC BY-SA 4.0
A Tetragnatha on a native olopua leaf on Maui, Hawaii.Photo: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0

Stretch spider by the numbers

Measured by scientists, with the study behind every number.

Species: ≈360; described Tetragnatha species worldwide (GBIF lists 321 accepted names)⁠[7, 19]
Body length: 2.6–13.8 mm; adult females of North American species, not counting the legs⁠[1]
Web spiral: 30–40; turns of sticky spiral in one North American species’ web⁠[1]
Rowing legs: 3 of 4 pairs; used to row on water; the 4th pair is dragged⁠[10]
Egg sacs: ≈1 week; after mating, a female may make several fluffy egg sacs⁠[1]
In Hawaii: ≈5 million years; since Tetragnatha colonised the Hawaiian Islands⁠[9]
Hawaiian web builders: ≈35 species; in Hawaii’s web-building group, plus the web-less spiny-leg group⁠[12]
Colour forms: 4; green, maroon, large brown and small brown spiny-leg forms⁠[7]
Silk chemicals: 124; different methyl ethers found on the silk of 11 Hawaiian species, used to recognise mates⁠[6]
Genome: 1.06 billion; DNA letters (base pairs) in the genome of Tetragnatha versicolor⁠[20]

Stretch spider: myth or fact?

Popular stretch spider “facts”, checked against the science.

0 of 8 answered

“Stretch spiders are insects.”
“Stretch spiders can move across water.”
“All stretch spiders catch their food in webs.”
“Males grow long jaws to fight each other.”
“Stretching out along a stem hides them from birds.”
“Baby stretch spiders fly through the air on silk.”
“A stretch spider keeps the same web for weeks.”
“In Hawaii, the same colour forms evolved more than once.”

Stretch spider records

Superlatives with sources.

Hawaii’s night weavers
The only ones
Hawaiian Tetragnatha
They are the only nocturnal orb-weaving spiders native to the Hawaiian Islands.⁠[12]
A very big genus
≈360 species
Tetragnatha
Found worldwide. In a 1981 review it was the second-largest orb-weaver genus north of Mexico, after Araneus.⁠[7, 1]
Most complex silk scent
4.84
Hawaiian web-building Tetragnatha
Average number of methyl ether compounds on their silk, compared with 2.15 for the spiny-leg species.⁠[6]
Biggest venom split
Males ≠ females
Tetragnatha
The difference between male and female venom was significantly larger than in the other spiders compared.⁠[5]

A stretch spider’s life

A typical life for species in cool climates, such as North America.

Summer
Jaw-lock mating
A male locks his long jaws onto the female’s fangs to mate.⁠[1]
About a week later
Egg sacs
The female may make several fluffy egg sacs, fixed to plants.⁠[1]
Soon after
Hatching
Spiderlings hatch soon after the eggs are laid.⁠[1]
Winter
Waiting it out
The young spiders spend the winter not yet grown up.⁠[1]
Every evening
A fresh web
Growing spiders spin light webs by water, sometimes in a new spot each night.⁠[1]
Last moult
Grown-up jaws
At the final moult the jaws suddenly grow long, most of all in males.⁠[4]

Stretch spider vs garden orb weaver vs wolf spider

Three common spiders you might meet near a pond.

Stretch spider vs garden orb weaver vs wolf spider
	Stretch spider	Garden orb weaver	Wolf spider
Catches food with⁠[1, 9, 21, 2]	An orb web (Hawaii’s spiny-leg species hunt without one)	An orb web	No web: it stalks prey on foot
Web shape⁠[1, 21]	Flat to upright, with an open centre	Upright; it waits at the hub facing down	None
Main hunting sense⁠[2]	Vibrations in the web	Vibrations in the web	Eyesight
Resting pose⁠[1]	Legs stretched out along a stem	Front legs pulled in and bent	–
Babies⁠[1, 22]	Left in fluffy egg sacs on plants	–	Mother carries her spiderlings

Garden orb weaver means Araneus and its relatives. A dash means we found no source we trust for that cell.

Stretch spider conservation

Common by many ponds, but some Hawaiian species live only in island forests.

IUCN Red List

Not Evaluated (NE)

Trend unknown

No stretch spider species has an IUCN Red List assessment, so nobody can yet say officially how they are doing. Many species are common near water.⁠[19, 23]

No Tetragnatha on the IUCN Red List (checked 2026)

Threats

Invasive wasps in Hawaii
Western yellowjackets brought to Hawaii eat a huge range of native arthropods and push their numbers down.⁠[24]
Broken-up forests
Lava flows split Hawaiian forests into patches. Forest-only species, such as T. brevignatha, end up more cut off than generalists.⁠[25]
Polluted streams
Pesticides and wastewater change which insects hatch from streams and so what the spiders eat. Mercury from water builds up in shoreline spiders.⁠[14, 15]
Newcomer spiders
Non-native spiders now live alongside native ones on the Hawaiian Islands.⁠[26]

What’s helping

Wasp control95%
Bait stations cut yellowjacket numbers by 95% in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the 3 months after treatment.⁠[27]
Knowing every species
Scientists have built a family tree that includes every known Hawaiian Tetragnatha species.⁠[28]
Water watchdogs
Because they eat insects from the water, shoreline spiders are used to monitor mercury pollution.⁠[15]
Wild edges
Most stretch spiders live near water. Leaving reeds and long grass along ponds and streams gives them places to rest and spin.⁠[1]

Hawaii’s stretch spiders

Hawaiian spiny-leg TetragnathaNot Evaluated
Web-less hunters of native forests, found only in Hawaii. Not assessed.⁠[9, 28]
Hawaiian web-building TetragnathaNot Evaluated
About 35 species of night-time orb weavers found only in Hawaii. Not assessed.⁠[12]

Stretch spider quiz

12 questions. Every answer is somewhere on this page.

Question 1 of 12Score 0

What kind of animal is a stretch spider?

Stretch Spiders field notes

Diet, food web, safety and badges from the Snappit field guide.

Diet & Feeding

These spiders mostly eat small flying insects they catch in their sticky webs.

Primary Foods

flies
mosquitoes
midges
moths
small beetles
Foraging Method: Ambush

Ecological connections

Non-biting MidgeHunts
Its webs catch small flies that hatch from the water, such as non-biting midges.
House SparrowEaten by
Birds often prey on spiders they find in vegetation.
Dewdrop SpiderParasite
Steals trapped insects from the Stretch Spider's web.

Safety

Danger 1/5 · Very low

If you see a spider, it's best to watch from a distance and not touch it.

Traits

Collections

Insects

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Tetragnathidae
Genus: Tetragnatha

Sources for these stretch spider facts

29 studies and references · checked Oct 16, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

How to identify Stretch Spiders?

Compare body proportions, leg shape, abdomen markings and the web, if there is one. Eye arrangement can be decisive but rarely shows up in a casual phone photo. A web is a supporting clue, not proof of who built it. Spider Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

How big is Stretch Spiders?

2.6-13.8 mm

How long does Stretch Spiders live?

365-730 days

What does Stretch Spiders eat?

These spiders mostly eat small flying insects they catch in their sticky webs.

Where is Stretch Spiders usually found?

Wetlands

How many legs does Stretch Spiders have?

Are stretch spiders dangerous?

They have venom for catching small insects, but they are not among the spiders health agencies warn about: in the USA, the CDC names black widows and brown recluses. Don’t pick one up. If anyone is bitten by a spider, stay calm, wash the spot with soap and water, cool it with a damp cloth, tell an adult and get medical advice.

Why are they called stretch spiders?

Because they rest stretched out along stems and grass, with their legs pointing forwards and backwards, so they look like a thin line.

Why are they called long-jawed orb weavers?

They build orb webs and have very long jaws (chelicerae). Adult males have the longest, which they lock onto the female’s jaws when mating.

Can stretch spiders walk on water?

Yes, in a way. Tetragnatha elongata that fall on a pond row across the surface with 3 pairs of legs and head for the nearest shore.

What do stretch spiders eat?

Mostly small flying insects that hatch from water, such as non-biting midges, crane flies and mosquitoes, caught in their webs.

Where do stretch spiders live?

All over the world, mostly near water: in reeds, long grass, bushes and trees beside ponds, rivers and wetlands.

Do all stretch spiders build webs?

No. Most do, but in Hawaii the spiny-leg group, descended from spiders that arrived about 5 million years ago, gave up webs and hunts on foot.

How big are stretch spiders?

In North America, adult females are 2.6–13.8 mm long without the legs, depending on the species. Their long legs make them look much bigger.

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