Stuff of nightmares: Researchers discover the world’s largest spider web

Arachnophobics look away now. Researchers from the Czech Speleological Society stumbled across the world’s largest spider web in 2022 while exploring a chemoautotrophic sulfidic ecosystem in a cave on the Albania-Greece border.

The huge, silken web, which spans over 1,040 square feet - nearly half the size of a tennis court, was the fruit of the labor of two spider species working together.

Spider species build “mega city” together

A joint venture by Tegenaria domestica, commonly known in the US as the barn funnel weaver or domestic house spider in Europe, and the smaller Prinerigone vagans (sheet weavers or money spiders), the giant web is now home to about 111,000 spiders from both species.

The domestic house spider is the dominant spider species in the colony, comprising an estimated 69,000 individuals while their neigbors, the sheet weaver community, is calculated at around 42,000.

The sulfur cave has presented researchers with the first known example of parasocial or colonial behavior - cooperation in web building by two different species sharing the same space, in Europe. Until now there had been only one documented case of sub-social behavior in cave-dwelling spiders - observed inside the Gruta Casa de Pedra cave, in Brazil’s Alto Ribeira Tourist State Park, in 2009.

Most spider species are solitary, which it is why it’s unusual to come across such a large population existing together and sharing the same communal web.

Finding food in the dark

In such a hostile environment - a pitch black cave filled with hydrogen sulfide gas, scientists wondered where such a large population of spiders would source their food. They found that the arachnids feed on tiny midges that hatch from cave pools.

Three other spider species were found to be present in the cave: long-jawed orb weavers (Metellina merianae), dwarf spiders (Lepthyphantes magnesiae), and tangle-web spiders (Kryptonesticuseremita). However, as non-colony-forming critters, they tend to keep themselves to themselves and live far away from the giant, communal “supercity” web.

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