Cavechat.org

Hopefully the local library or bookstore has a National Audubon Society book on insects and spiders, but in the meantime, perhaps someone knows off hand...

I understand that I am not giving much to go on. I saw a spider in a cave on the ceiling and it was about the size of a brown recluse if not slightly larger. It was all brown, too, like a recluse, but had white or beige bands on its legs.

I'm not an expert and I won't be able to help. But I'm sure it would help whoever is an expert if you gave an idea of where you saw this spider. Southern Indiana perhaps? Northern California?

Yea, could I be any more vague. Thanks.

Central Missouri.

There were a large number of crickets in there, too.

Could it be this? http://forums.caves.org/viewtopic.php?t=3443

Can you guess as to how many millimeters or centimeters it was? Did it act a certain way? It could be one of the wolf spiders. Some times people confuse wolf spiders with the brown recluse.

Almost sounds like a small fishing spider. But who knows.

Not being an expert, I looked in A Guide to Missouri's Cave Life by W.R. Elliot, available online in pdf format at:
http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_sit ... 20life.pdf
Spiders are shown on page 26,27. If the spider looked a little hairy, I would agree with SpeleoRover on a fishing spider (Dolomedes sp.) If the spider was not hairy, I would guess Meta orvalis as Scott sugested. The bands on the legs of Meta orvalis are generally light tan, I guess you might call them beige. I am sure the color may be lighter if the spider had molted recently.

Body shape is pretty distinct on both spiders, too. That's kind of the giveaway for me when I see either one. I saw some pretty groovy fishing spiders today on a kayaking run.

It blended in well with the rock and was kind of far away to really get close and notice much in the way of detail.

All things considered (input here and looking in some books and online), I am fairly certain that it was a fishing spider.