Also spin(n)aret. [dim. of SPINNER: see -ET.] An organ or process by which the silk, gossamer or thread of certain insects, esp. silkworms and spiders, is produced; a spinning-organ; spec. (a) one of the pores or tubules on the lower lip of a silkworm or caterpillar; (b) one of the nipple-like mammillæ on the abdomen of a spider.
(a) 1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxx. 124. On each side of the apex of the under-lip is a minute feeler, and in the middle … is a filiform organ, which I shall call the spinneret (Fusulus), through which the larva draws the silken thread employed in fabricating its cocoon.
1863. Spencer, Ess., II. 336. It appears that the ultimate fibre of silk is coated, in issuing from the spinneret of the silk-worm, with a film of varnish.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 148. The median lobe … carries … a central tubular projection, the spinneret, upon which opens the common duct of the two silk glands.
(b) 1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 209/1. The surface of each of the spinnarets [of the spider] is pierced by an infinite number of minute holes.
1841. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 317. The fluid silk,… when it is drawn through the microscopic apertures of the spinneret, affords the material whereof the web is constructed.
1849. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 371. A minutely bituberculated wart, somewhat like the spinnerets of the spider.
fig. 1877. Athenæum, 1 Dec., 701/2. The web is now before us, but the spinnerets used in the elaboration of most of it have been the scissors, and the gossamer, paste.
(c) 1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. viii. 254. The spinnerets … of various shell fish [are] in their foot.
