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Comments & ID Thoughts
Cave Spider??
Found about 50 of these large shiny black spiders in one derelict concrete WW2 German bunker in Normandy.
Approx 3 cm across including legs.
Teardrop shaped body similar to black widows. Little or no obvious webs. Each spider was spaced apart by approx 1 metre around the borders between the walls and ceiling - one was sitting on top of an old water pipe.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Sep 20, 2018
- Photographed: Sep 14, 2018
- Spider: Meta (Cave Orb-weavers)
- Location: Near Merville, Normandy, France, United Kingdom
- Spotted Indoors: Basement or Cellar
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes: Lateral
Meta species, ‘cave spider’, either Meta bourneti or Meta menardi.
a type of long-jawed orbweaver, harmless.
Thank you for helping identify this spider – glad it was harmless! It really looked like the teardrop body of a black widow!
No problem.
They do look kinda similar at first but they are in a different family from each other.
There is a Mediterranean widow species (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus) but it would be found in a much different habitiat, and I am pretty sure they don’t range that far north of France.