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Sticker of European cave spider
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European cave spider

Meta menardi
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersHouses and farms8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The European cave spider is a big, shiny spider, black to reddish brown. It does not like light at all, so it lives in dark caves, tunnels and old mines. It is one of the biggest spiders in Britain, but it is calm and slow, a real gentle giant.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
From Scandinavia to North Africa and across Asia to Korea, in caves, tunnels and mines
Length
1.5 cm (0.59 in)
Top speed
about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting

Spiders are venomous! Read about spider venom on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It catches small creepy crawlies, most often millipedes, centipedes and slugs. At dusk it may swing down on its prey from a single silk line, like a lasso.
For real!Photo of European cave spider
Picture by oio154. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

European cave spider about 1.5 cm long (0.59 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.4 secondsmoves 28 times its own body length every second

How big is European cave spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The grown-up spiders hide from light, but the babies love it. They crawl towards the light and leave the cave to find new homes.

2

Its egg sac looks like a white teardrop hanging from the cave roof on a silk thread. Inside are about 200 to 300 eggs.

3

The baby spiders fly away from the cave on long silk threads that the wind carries, like tiny balloons.

4

It often lives in caves where bats live too.

5

In 2001 some were found under Windsor Castle and the news called them aggressive monster spiders. They were just ordinary cave spiders.

you asked

Most asked questions about European cave spider

?How big is the European cave spider?

Its body is about 15 millimetres long, and with its legs it is about 5 centimetres across.

?Where does the cave spider live?

In dark places like caves, tunnels, mines and drains, all the way from Europe to Korea.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Meta menardi
Group
Spiders
Family
Tetragnathidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Tetragnathidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa
Also known as
Orbweaving cave spider, Cave orbweaver

Where the facts come from

  1. Meta menardi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by oio154. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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