Meta (spider)

This article is about a genus of spiders. For other uses, see Meta (disambiguation).

Meta is a genus of long-jawed orb-weavers that was first described by Ludwig Carl Christian Koch in 1835.^[3] They are often associated with caves, caverns, and recesses, earning some of them the name "cave orbweavers"

Meta Temporal range: Palaeogene– Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Meta sp. with eggsac
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Tetragnathidae
Genus:	Meta C. L. Koch, 1835[1]
Type species
M. menardi (Latreille, 1804)
Species
26, see text
Synonyms[1]
Auchicybaeus Gertsch, 1933[2]

Species

As of March 2021^[update] it contains twenty-six species, found worldwide:^[1]

• Meta abdomenalis Patel & Reddy, 1993 – India
• Meta birmanica Thorell, 1898 – Myanmar
• Meta bourneti Simon, 1922 – Europe, Georgia, North Africa
• Meta dolloff Levi, 1980 – USA
• Meta hamata Wang, Zhou, Irfan, Yang & Peng, 2020 — China
• Meta japonica Tanikawa, 1993 – Japan
• Meta longlingensis Wang, Zhou, Irfan, Yang & Peng, 2020 — China
• Meta manchurica Marusik & Koponen, 1992 – Russia (Far East), Korea
• Meta menardi (Latreille, 1804) (type) – Europe, Turkey, Iran
• Meta meruensis Tullgren, 1910 – Tanzania
• Meta mixta O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885 – China (Yarkand)
• Meta monogrammata Butler, 1876 – Australia (Queensland)
• Meta montana Hogg, 1919 – Indonesia (Sumatra)
• Meta nebulosa Schenkel, 1936 – China
• Meta nigridorsalis Tanikawa, 1994 – China, Japan
• Meta obscura Kulczyński, 1899 – Canary Is., Madeira
• Meta ovalis (Gertsch, 1933) – USA, Canada
• Meta qianshanensis Zhu & Zhu, 1983 – China
• Meta serrana Franganillo, 1930 – Cuba
• Meta shenae Zhu, Song & Zhang, 2003 – China
• Meta simlaensis Tikader, 1982 – India
• Meta stridulans Wunderlich, 1987 – Madeira
• Meta tangi >Wang, Zhou, Irfan, Yang & Peng, 2020 — China
• Meta turbatrix Keyserling, 1887 – Australia (New South Wales)
• Meta yani >Wang, Zhou, Irfan, Yang & Peng, 2020 — China
• Meta tangi >Wang, Zhou, Irfan, Yang & Peng, 2020 — China

Synonyms

Synonyms include:^[1]

• Meta americana Marusik & Koponen, 1992 = Meta ovalis (Gertsch, 1933)
• Meta milleri Kratochvíl, 1942 = Meta bourneti Simon, 1922

Dubious names

Nomina dubia (dubious names) include:^[1]

• Meta nigra Franganillo, 1920

See also

• List of Tetragnathidae species