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2%%The examples on this page have been sorted alphabetically. Please help keep this page tidy by adding new ones in order. Thank you!
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4[[quoteright:270:[[ComicBook/ScarletSpider https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2008799_scarlets3.png]]]]
5
6->''A close cousin of the Acid Spitter, the Web Spitter is capable of firing globs of extremely sticky webbing that will entrap and immobilize any prey, allowing them to go in for the kill at their own pace.''
7-->-- '''Glyphid Web Spitter description''', ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic''
8
9Real-life spiders, while able to do some remarkable things with silk, are generally somewhat limited in their ability to use it as a ranged weapon. This is not so for their fictional counterparts, who are often shown as able to shoot and launch their silk, both as individual strands and as fully formed webs, to entangle and ensnare their targets. This can be done for a number of reasons, such as dynamism -- a spider patiently sitting in its web waiting for prey to pass by doesn't really make for exciting action scenes -- or simple [[ArtisticLicenseBiology lack of research]].
10
11It's worth noting that some spiders ''do'' possess the ability to cast their webs to ensnare prey. They cannot squirt webbing directly at targets, however (they spin a kind of "net", and then pick it up and throw it with their forelegs), and the range and dexterity of their throws isn't generally on the level sometimes seen in fiction.
12
13While this is most often applied to spiders, as they're generally the animals most tied to silk and webbing in popular culture, other silk-producing arthropods (like caterpillars and other insect larvae) can easily be granted the ability to launch their webbing in a similar fashion.
14
15See also AllWebbedUp. SubTrope of ArtisticLicenseArachnids and SisterTrope to NetGun. This trope can help characterize a SneakySpider.
16
17----
18!!Examples:
19
20[[foldercontrol]]
21
22[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
24** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': A spider Digimon called Dokugumon has an attack that consists of shooting web from its abdomen. One does so in [[Recap/DigimonAdventureE28ItsAllInTheCards Episode 28]], spraying strands of webbing from her mouth at the start of the battle and entangling most of the heroic Digimon before they can do anything.
25** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': The larval Wormmon relies on silk web techniques that have a myriad of uses, like trapping foes, shooting needle-like web projectiles, swinging or grabbing objects. Arukenimon, who is the Ultimate form of the aforementioned Dokugumon, also has web attacks.
26* ''Manga/FairyTail100YearsQuest'': The Dragon Eater Nebal holds the [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower deceptively strong]] power of the "Adesive Dragon Slayer Magic", which allows him to produce and manipulate web from his body to tangle its victim. Furthermore, once he shoots the web, he can make it form cocoons from a safe distance without physical contact.
27* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': The [[SpiderTank Tachikomas]], while not capable of producing actual silk, have an ability reminiscent of this in the form of web-like guidewires that they can shoot from their pods to swing around as a form of mobility. As shown in episode 2 "TESTATION", they can attach the wires to other moving objects such as the HAW-201 tank in an effort to slow it down with their own body weight.
28* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Speed Villain has the ability to spit out webs to catch his enemies.
29* ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'': The main character uses this trope often over the course of the story due to being a GiantSpider in an RPG world. By the time she [[spoiler:leaves the labyrinth]], her ability to produce webs becomes a SwissArmySuperpower capable of things like cleaving, piercing, and bludgeoning targets, binding enemies to deal a CoupDeGrace in the form of a venomous bite, setting traps, and weaving entire houses.
30* ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'': The ability to shoot webs is one of several ninja skills Gozarutchi knows how to pull off.
31* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'': [[spoiler:Mohyan Shayshay]], after being turned into a GiantSpider, can attack by spitting spears made of solid web at the enemy, a technique he [[CallingYourAttacks calls "Itoyari" (Thread Spears)]]. Earlier, the monstrous Parasite Emperor birthed by Tommyrod can, among its innumerable attacks, shoot a thread of silk to restrain his prey and drive them to its stinger tail.
32[[/folder]]
33
34[[folder:Asian Animation]]
35* ''Animation/MotuPatlu'': In "Super Duper Man", Motu and Patlu can shoot webs out of their hands as one of their superpowers. The webs aren't very helpful, however, as they're not sticky enough for Motu and Patlu to use them to stick to walls.
36* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': In episode 65, Wolffy has a run-in with a giant spider and gains the ability to shoot webs from his bellybutton. Wolffy uses the webs to do none other than capture the goats.
37[[/folder]]
38
39[[folder:Comic Books]]
40* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'': In ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue1To4 The Return of Queen Chrysalis]]'', the {{Giant Spider}}s the mane six encounter in the abandoned mines can squirt liquid silk out of their spinnerets, which forms into instant spiderwebs. They use this during the fight to bind the ponies to the mine's walls with flash-formed webbing cocoons.
41* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spider-Man, while not an actual spider himself, relies heavily on his famous web-shooters, which he holds in the palms of his hands and uses to shoot large quantities of webbing to produce both thick ropes with which to swing from buildings and nets with which to trap villains. This trope is also employed by most other spider-themed superheroes, such as ComicBook/ScarletSpider and ComicBook/SpiderGwen. Others, like ComicBook/{{Silk}}, do have organic webbing. Characters/{{Venom}} has learned the trick as well, organically producing a stronger version of Spider-Man's silk to use as a weapon and a mobility tool, but creating too much too quickly taxes its resources and weakens it.
42* ''ComicBook/SpiderWoman'': Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman, can create "[[PsychicPowers psionic-webbing]]", which is made of psychic energy instead of being organic.
43[[/folder]]
44
45[[folder:Fan Works]]
46* ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'' features the [[ComicBook/SpiderMan original web-slinger himself]], who teaches a newly spider-powered Izuku how to make his own web formula and web-shooters.
47* ''Fanfic/ConfusedAndDazed'': Anne Marie can fire webbing from her fingers. Peter uses the webbing she creates for his own web-shooters before he makes his own synthetic version.
48* ''Fanfic/EquestriaDivided'': Weblings, changelings with the bodies of {{Giant Spider}}s, can shoot extremely strong webbing from considerable range and serve as the swarms' ranged units.
49* ''Fanfic/SeventhEndmostVision'': [[BigCreepyCrawlies Grashtrike]] [[MixAndMatchCritters Queens]] can do this, using it to make nests in the subways of the Plate. It can also go off after one dies; [[SuperSoldier Tifa]] has a moment of awesome turned into a funny one after killing a Queen when the thing's body jerks and manages to web her directly to the ground.
50[[/folder]]
51
52[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
53* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'': Chula the spider functions as errand boy to the villain, Cat R. Waul. While Waul is welcoming some mice to the town of Green River, Chula is told to issue water. Being a recalcitrant fellow, Chula hocks a loogie at a newlywed couple, which forms an instant web, trapping them inside an old boot. Waul flicks away the webbing and continues his AffablyEvil schmooze.
54[[/folder]]
55
56[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
57* ''Film/BastardSwordsman'': Practitioners of the "Silkworm Technique" kung fu can create strands of silk using their ''qi'', which Fei Yang, the film's hero, displays in the final battle. He even uses his ''qi''-generated silk to cocoon himself as an impromptu shield.
58* ''Film/EightLeggedFreaks'': Played with by the {{Giant Spider}}s . Some of them can squirt thick streams of liquid silk from their abdomen to immobilize prey at melee distance, but since they're so friggin' huge it still translates into a meter or two from which they can glue you to the wall behind you. The character played by Creator/ScarlettJohansson finds this out the hard way.
59* ''Film/TheSuperInframan'': The Spider Monster can spit ''explosive'' web projectiles capable of encasing unfortunate victims, which explodes when the victim is trapped.
60* ''Film/WebOfDeath'': One of the many powers displayed by the titular weapon is the ability to eject poisonous webs that clings to the skin of it's victims, ensnaring them on the spot causing them to shrivel with copious amounts of BodyHorror. Liu Shen, the BigBad, notably uses this function to trap an entire room of rival martial artists and kills them all in one swoop.
61[[/folder]]
62
63[[folder:Franchises]]
64* Franchise/MonsterVerse:
65** Even as a larva, [[Characters/MonsterVerseMothra Mothra]] in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' can spit wads of stick silk large enough to tie a grown human to a wall -- as an adult, her silk becomes copious and strong enough to be able to glue two of King Ghidorah's three heads to a building with one shot.
66** The graphic novel ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' depicts two [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandKaijuAndOtherCreatures Mother Longlegs]] utilizing this when fighting against Kong, not that it does them much good.
67[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:Literature]]
70* ''Literature/TheChrysalids'': The Sealanders' helicopter is equipped with a device that entraps enemies in web-like, sticky strands. However, unlike most examples of this trope, the webbing chokes those trapped in it to death -- ''[[SinisterSuffocation slowly]]''.
71* ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'': In ''Literature/TheTowerOfTheElephant'', Conan fights a GiantSpider. After its first charges at the Cimmerian fail to kill him and cost it a leg, the spider settles for webbing the door shut to trap Conan in the room with it, then trying to snare him with strands of web fired from beyond sword reach.
72* ''Literature/TheKrakenWakes:'' The aliens who have colonized Earth's oceans send bio-tanks up onto shore, where they produce jellyfish-like wads which bloop out into a mass of streamers that latch on to any humans they touch, and reel the victims in, dead or alive, to be taken down below. It's noted in-universe these streamers are somehow able to distinguish between their target and any inorganic material they encounter.
73[[/folder]]
74
75[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
76* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
77** Blackspawn stalkers, chimeras of spiders and black dragons, can throw webs like nets to entangle creatures.
78** The obsidian dragons described in ''Dragon'' Magazine #146 (distinct from the eponymous gem dragons from later editions) can breathe out a membranous, ten-foot web three times per day, which they can launch up to sixty feet away and which on contact hardens into a shell of black ice.
79** Spiders and spider-like creatures, such as araneas, choldriths, ettercaps and giant spiders, can shoot webs at enemies, binding them.
80** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'': Xenostelid, huge arthropods created by the daelkyr as living siege engines, can throw webs to entrap and immobile creatures.
81* ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'': Grendlim, biomechanical lizard-like creatures native to the Phaeton Ring, hunt their prey by spitting sticky nets at it.
82* ''TabletopGame/TailsOfEquestria'': {{Giant Spider}}s can produce and sling around webbing during combat to entangle foes.
83* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
84** Stranglewebs are a type of Tyranid bio-weapon in the form of a spider-like creature that fires nets of sticky mucous that adhere to targets and rapidly constrict around them, usually crushing them to death. Some are coated with poison to make them more lethal. They're typically used to capture organisms to be carried back to the Hive Ships for analysis and incorporation.
85** The arachnid-themed Eldar Warp Spiders use guns called death spinners to evoke this trope, but instead of sticky webbing, it's a cloud of [[SharpenedToASingleAtom mono-molecular]] [[RazorFloss filament]] that shreds anything it touches.
86** ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'': Envelopers, also known as stickyflies, are flying insects native to the DeathWorld Yanth that can spray streams of sticky webbing from holes behind their mandibles. Once set, these webs can only be broken down with powerful solvents or acids.
87[[/folder]]
88
89[[folder:Video Games]]
90* ''VideoGame/BladeAndSoul'': Grave spiders can shoot a whole sticky web at the player character, which can envelop the warrior like netting, pinning her to the spot until she can slash herself free. The spider can attack the [=PC=] through the webbing, inflicting damage, while the trapped [=PC=] must first cut through the webbing before getting any swipes at the grave spider.
91* ''VideoGame/CadenceOfHyrule'': One of the Gohmaracas' attacks involves spitting out balls of webbing that will ensnare the player if hit.
92* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'': Webber spiders can spray webbing at your heroes, which both has a chance to stun and marks the target, causing the attacks of other spiders to do much more damage.
93* ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'': Glyphid Web Spitters spit out tangles of sticky webs which bind and slow down player characters.
94* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'': Downplayed: wounded GiantSpider enemies will try to flee, leaving a trail of webbing behind to slow you down.
95* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': Squitter the Spider (one of the Kongs' animal friends) shoots webs, which can be used either as temporary platforms or as a projectile attack.
96* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': Giant spiders have a long-distance web attack that immobilizes whomever they use it on for a long time. And they will use it frequently. Just one of the reason they're considered DemonicSpiders.
97* ''VideoGame/DragonMarkedForDeath'': Demonpillars and Void Spiders can spit globs of webbing that immobilize enemies.
98* ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce'': Spider enemies come in two major types, both of which use projectile webs as their main weapons. Wolf Spider types jump around and spit strands of webbing that can slow or even immobilize a player character. Larger Retiarius/Aranea types spin enormous webs that can trap players, but can also draw prey into the web by throwing long lines of webbing.
99* ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach'': Several breeds of the {{Kaiju}}-sized Vek spray their target with immobilizing webs at close range, including creatures whose normal-sized counterparts do not produce silk at all, like Vek [[ScaryScorpions scorpions]] and the [[SlayingMantis mantis-like leapers]]. Vek spiders, meanwhile, launch blobs of webbing across the map, which not only hatch into spiderlings after one round, but also web up all adjacent enemies until they do.
100* ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'': Kirby's Spider ability lets him (among other things) shoot webs at range that quickly encases minor enemies in pods.
101* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterOnline'': Baelidae, a giant arthropod resembling a cross between a crab and a spider, can shoot out strands of silk to slow the player down.
102* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'': Several Bug-type moves are themed around a Pokémon shooting or spitting strands of silk at its opponent.
103** The old staple String Shot is typically themed as a Pokémon shooting strands of silk from its mouth to bind its opponent. It's most often learned by Pokémon resembling caterpillars, other insect larvae or spiders.
104** This tends to be particularly evident in [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries the anime]], where moves such as [[ShockAndAwe Electroweb]], Spider Web and Sticky Web are often depicted as the user (typically a spider-like 'mon such as Ariados, Galvantula or Dewpider) tossing fully-formed orb webs at its opponent, or alternatively as sticky globs that turn into webs on contact with a target. Notably, the moves' descriptions in the games just reference their users spinning or weaving nets around their targets -- no active launching is implied.
105* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'': The {{Giant Spider}}s can shoot balls of silk that turn into webbing that can impede player and other mobs.
106* ''VideoGame/StarcraftI'': Zerg Queens can barf up a mass of sticky green substance over an area that greatly slows any units caught in it. It also reveals cloaked units, making it useful against Ghost nukes.
107* ''VideoGame/SuperCyborg'' has a GiantSpider boss whose main attack is by spitting web at you from atop the screen before descending to chew you up.
108* ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'': Wyyyschokks, {{Giant Spider}}s native to the forests of Kashyyyk, can fire entangling web globules in several highly precise patterns.
109* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIIIReignOfChaos'': Crypt Fiends and some Nerubians have the Web ability, which spits a mass of webbing at an enemy flyer, bringing it down to earth where ground units can attack it.
110* ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'': Downplayed. Deelers don't shoot their webs ''per se'', but rather toss them down from the tree canopy in order to ensnare Link and keep him immobile while the spider drops down to attack.
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder:Web Animation]]
114* ''WebAnimation/AnimatorVsAnimation'': In "[[Recap/AnimatorVsAnimationAVAShortsEpisode1TheVirus The Virus]]", the titular computer virus, which takes the form of a four-legged insect-like creature, responds to being faced with five opponents by producing large blobs of sticky webbing from its mouth and spitting them at its foes, enveloping them in tough strands and sticking them to the computer screen's walls.
115[[/folder]]
116
117[[folder:Webcomics]]
118* ''Webcomic/CassiopeiaQuinn'': In ''The Body-Snatchifiers'', Dr. Botz's upgraded version of herself -- a {{Cyborg}} {{Spider Pe|ople}}rson with eight mechanical limbs -- can spray jets of fast-hardening webbing from her wrists.
119* ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'': One of Mr.X's experiments is able to shoot webbing out of its mouth, and uses it to drag away Douglas during the fight on Mr.X's castle grounds.
120* ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'': After Heather gains her superpowers following an incident involving a prototype "genetic infusion chamber" and spider DNA, she gains the ability to shoot threads of strong spider silk... from new glands at the base of her spine, in a position roughly analogous to where a spider's spinnerets are in real life.
121[[/folder]]
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123[[folder:Western Animation]]
124%%* ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'': At one point, Hercules and Icarus sneak into the Underworld to reweave the Tapestry of Fate and ensure they can get tickets to a particular concert. While there, they encounter Arachne, the tapestry's guardian, who snares the running Icarus with a web and eats him alive. This leads into the rest of the story as Herc reweaves the tapestry himself to save his friend.%%Missing relevant context -- is the webbing actually shot?
125* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
126** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E15ScareMaster Scare Master]]": When Fluttershy asks him to close the windows during her initial Nightmare Night barricade, Fuzzy Legs the spider does this by shooting two thick strings of webbing at them and using them to slam the windows shut.
127** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E16CampfireTales Campfire Tales]]": Flyders -- [[MixAndMatchCritters spiders with insect wings]] -- can squirt strands of webbing from their spinnerets with a fair degree of accuracy. One is able to shoot out enough webbing to cover half of Sweetie Belle's face with a single shot, while another shoots out a strand accurately enough to tangle Applejack's legs bolas-style in mid-gallop.
128* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E01SecondContact Second Contact]]", the Galardonian GiantSpider can fire streams of silk from the spinnerets on its behind.
129[[/folder]]
130
131[[folder:Real Life]]
132* This is in fact TruthInTelevision in the case of a few families of spiders.
133** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas_spider Bolas spiders]] create a ball of sticky webbing on the end of a silk line, which they then throw at prey before reeling them in. Appropriately, they are also known as angling or fishing spiders.
134** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinopidae Deinopids]], also known as the net-casting spiders, spin webs of elastic silk that they hold in their front legs as they hang upside-down over the ground or a tree branch. When a prey item passes below the spider, the latter quickly stretches out its web and throws itself on top of its target, entangling it in the net.
135** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_spider gnaphosid]] ground spiders, which hunt prey by chasing it down rather than spinning trap webs, can quickly eject strands of thick, glue-like silk to tangle and ensnare their quarries, allowing the spiders to minimize their risk of injury while subduing their prey. They cannot shoot directed streams of silk, however -- rather, they run around their targets while trailing their webbing, entangling them as they go.
136** The Scytodidae, or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitting_spider spitting spiders]], catch prey by spitting a mixture of liquid silk and venom. The mix congeals on contact, both immobilizing and envenoming the target.
137* Some of the best web-spitters are not spiders at all, but the onychophora, or velvet worms. These close relatives of arthropods possess twin "slime cannons" on their face that can squirt a fast-drying glue, immobilizing their prey.
138* Neutrophils, the most abundant white blood cell, can kill bacteria casting [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrophil_extracellular_traps nets]] of DNA with proteines mixed in up to in suicide fashion destroying the cell, even if such procedure is also harmful for the host.
139[[/folder]]

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