The spiderhunters are birds of the genus Arachnothera, part of the sunbird family Nectariniidae.

The genus contains thirteen species found in the forests of south and southeastern Asia.

They are large representatives of the sunbird family, with drab plumage and long strongly curved bills.

Unlike the rest of the family, which is more widespread, the spiderhunters are confined to the Oriental zoogeographic region, occurring from India east to the Philippines and from the Himalayas south to Java; they reach their greatest species diversity in the Thai-Malay peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo.

[2] The calls of the spiderhunters are very simple, typically a metallic chip which is repeated multiple times to form the song.

They also consume a wide range of other small arthropod prey including crickets, caterpillars, butterflies, ants and other insects.

Their tubular tongue is pushed against the top of the upper mandible of the bill, then pulled in and out, creating a pressure difference which allows the nectar to be sucked into the mouth.