#4344 · 🕷️ spiders & kin
European cave spider
🇳🇱 Gewone grottenspin ·Meta menardi
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The European cave spider , Meta menardi , is a long-jawed orb-weaving spider (Family Tetragnathidae) it is also known as the orbweaving cave spider , the cave orbweaver and simply the cave spider (in context).
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 2 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 4,551 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Pierre André Latreille in 1804 (222 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- European cave spider
- Nederlands
- Gewone grottenspin
- scientific name
- Meta menardi
- class
- Arachnida
- order
- Araneae
- family
- Tetragnathidae
- sightings in NL
- 2
- sightings in Europe
- 2,653
- sightings worldwide
- 4,551
- GBIF records in NL
- 87
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1804 by Pierre André Latreille
relatives· Tetragnathidae
#4246 📷 7Shaded Orbweaver
🇳🇱 Holenwielwebspin
Metellina merianae
👀 44 in NL
#4260 📷 10Common Stretch Spider
🇳🇱 Gewone strekspin
Tetragnatha extensa
👀 33 in NL
#4274 📷 10Degeer's Thickjaw
🇳🇱 Kleine dikkaak
Pachygnatha degeeri
👀 22 in NL
#4330 📷 10Blunt Stretch Spider
🇳🇱 Droogtestrekspin
Tetragnatha obtusa
👀 9 in NL
#4336 📷 7Eurasian Armoured Long-jawed Spider
🇳🇱 Herfstspin
Metellina segmentata
👀 8 in NL
#4403 📷 7Orchard Orbweaver
Leucauge venusta
🌍 51.3k seen
#4418 📷 10Mabel Orchard Orbweaver
Leucauge argyrobapta
🌍 19.7k seen
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 224958, Wikidata Q1470676, GBIF 2151378, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.