They were large creatures that inhabited the many caves and warrens on their home world. It was known that the Nightsisters known as the Spiderclan took control over one particular cavern and forced the young spiders to serve them. Only the larger adults managed to resist their will and resulted in the Spiderclan to fear those adults that lived deep underground. Different castes included broodling, hunter, recluse, and queen.
The Bane Back spider was a larger, stronger and more resistant mutated variant of gaping spider.
After the Battle of Yavin, Doctor Maldien conducted illegal and highly dangerous bioengineering experiments in a laboratory on Corellia to create very aggressive and intelligent creatures. This included engineered gaping spiders.
Around the same time, the collector Kakirk tasked a group of spacers to hunt and kill an unreasonable number of gaping spiders.