[Slump Tester]

"But as for catching unsuspecting prey in a web, that appears to be an evolutionary strategy that has survived the test of time."

Spiders catching their food in their web is "evolutionary"! Who knew?

[albionin]

It means that web spinning is a successful strategy for catching prey, so much so, that it has survived into the present as a tactic. Not all spiders make webs. some are ambush predators.