Arachnids

Clues in this puzzle

Across

• Hardened dorsal shield covering the cephalothorax (8)
• Shedding one's hardened overcoat to permit expansion (4)
• Nursery parcel guarded in a spherical sac (3)
• Distal leg tip equipped with microscopic climbing claws (6)
• Polysaccharide armor forming the lightweight skeleton (6)
• Arachnid jaw mechanism designed to crush or pierce (9)
• Tail extremity that packs a toxic punch (6)
• Camouflaged subterranean door lined with soil and thread (4)
• Octet of ocular beads watching for vibration (4)
• Parasitic clockwork crawler spreading Lyme (4)
• Hourglass wearer with a reputation for lethal widowhood (5)
• Geometric suspended snare engineered of protein (3)
• Pertaining to the tail end that carries a sting (6)

Down

• Father figure absent after a cannibalistic mating encounter (5)
• The metamorphic act of crawling out of one's skin (7)
• Glands located near the leg base for liquid waste (5)
• Sydney resident lurking in ground silk tubes with deadly bite (9)
• Abdominal organ that prints liquid threads into open air (9)
• Daddylonglegs with no venom nor separate waistline (10)
• Glows neon under ultraviolet illumination with claws aloft (8)
• Scytodes missile that glues prey from a distance (4)
• Hollow syringe used before the digest begins (4)
• Silken tote bag carried under the sternum (3)

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