cave spider

[DE3]

I've been visiting a particular cave on my bro's property for ten years now. This is the first year I've seen these spiders with the yellow on the abdomen.
link (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h79/_the-cave_/cavespider.jpg)

[Scolopendra55]

Very nice!! Where is this cave?

[NRF]

It belongs to the genus Meta, could be Meta menardi.

[DE3]

Very nice!! Where is this cave?

thanks.
the cave is located in ENE Iowa.

[Scolopendra55]

How large is it?

[paleocaver]

From what I can tell about the body, it looks like Meta sp. But I've never seen that bright of coloration on the abdoment like that. At least not in our Alabama caves. Are they all that bright or did you chose this one for it's unique colors? Did you enhance the photo in any way.

Either way, cool pic. They are the spider that got me over my fear of spiders. Where I cave, it's either cave with them or forget it, there's that many of them.

[NRF]

The narrow abdomen indicates it is a male. All adult males of M. menardi I have seen are as light as the one on the picture. Females and subad. males are darker.

[DE3]

here's the other color variation
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h79/_the-cave_/0757.jpg