I was discussing the Mirkwood spiders, and about them being descendants of Shelob, at the recent Oxonmoot. I remembered that Tolkien, in this chapter,
never makes any mention of the spiders' genders, not even using references like 'he' or 'she' when they speak.
This makes perfect sense in terms of the story being told from Bilbo's point of view. He was busy trying to save himself and his friends, and not interested in which of the spiders he fought and killed were boy or girl ones.
