redback

British  

noun

1. a small venomous Australian spider, Latrodectus hasselti , having long thin legs and, in the female, a red stripe on the back of its globular abdomen

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Example Sentences

Only 3 percent of the world’s business is done using the redback.

From New York Times • Mar. 11, 2022

Chinese companies carry a lot of foreign-denominated debt, which gets harder to pay off when the redback slides.

From Slate • Sep. 19, 2018

Male Australian redback spiders perform courtship in phases, first at least 100 minutes of vibrating the web, and then vibrating both the web and the female’s abdomen before attempting to mate.

From National Geographic • Feb. 10, 2018

On Tuesday the 21-year-old tradesman, identified only as Jordan, was using a portable toilet on a Sydney building site when he was bitten by a redback spider.

From BBC • Sep. 28, 2016

Despite that, researchers said redback males “successfully find and mate one out of three immature females in nature”.

From The Guardian • Sep. 20, 2016