Meta ovalis
(Cave Orb-weaver)

The spider species Meta ovalis, commonly known as Cave Orb-weaver, belongs to the genus Meta, in the family Tetragnathidae. Meta ovalis spiders have been sighted 8 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Meta ovalis includes 2 countries and 6 states in the United States. Meta ovalis is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of May.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Tetragnathidae
Genus: Meta
Species: Meta ovalis

Other Common Names

Cave Orb-weaver

Author

Willis J. Gertsch, 1933

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 8 confirmed sightings of Meta ovalis (Cave Orb-weaver), with the most recent sighting submitted on May 7, 2025 by Spider ID member cjshields. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 8 sightings because of certain Meta ovalis sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 38% of the time, Meta ovalis spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 8)
Sex: 1 female and 1 male.
Environment: Meta ovalis has been sighted 7 times outdoors, and 3 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (2). Freshwater river, lake, stream (1). Cave (4).