[SPIDER sb. 10 b.] One or other of several crabs belonging to the group Oxyrhyncha, esp. to the family Maioidea, and characterized by their long slender legs and spider-like appearance; a main or maioid crab.
1710. Sibbald, Hist. Fife, 55. Cancer Araneus Johnstoni, the Spider Crab.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica (1779), 421. The Spider-Crab…. All the limbs are slender and delicate, in proportion to the size of the body.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 229. A few spider-crabs … were also stored away.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 81. The spider-crab, or maia, of little value as food, though occasionally eaten.
1883. Science, I. 466/2. The enormous spider-crabs of the Straits of Magellan.
