It Can Catch a Whale.. 111,000 Spiders Build the Largest Web Known to the World

SadaNews - In the depths of a dark cave extending beneath the borders of Greece and Albania, an international team of scientists has discovered one of the strangest natural phenomena recorded so far: a giant spider web covering an area of 106 square meters, equivalent to about half a tennis court, likely making it the largest known collective spider web in the world.

The discovery was made inside the sulfur cave located in northern Greece, some of whose passages extend into southern Albania. It is part of a massive labyrinth of limestone featuring wide halls and winding tunnels formed by the Sarandaporus River over thousands of years.

A study published in the journal "Subterranean Biology" revealed that this large web, large enough to catch a whale, was not woven by a single spider, but constructed by a colony of about 111,000 spiders of two different species, in a behavior that has not been scientifically documented before.

Using genetic analysis, the researchers estimated that the web consists of about 69,000 funnel-weaving house spiders, in addition to more than 42,000 spiders of the "Prinerigoni vagans" species.

The researchers explained that this represents the first documented evidence of cooperation between these two species in building a shared colonial web, despite the fact that they do not usually interact in this manner in surface environments.

A Unique Ecosystem

The sulfur cave features a unique environment, as it is penetrated by water rich in sulfur, emitting a smell similar to rotten eggs, while light is completely absent from its depths.

Unlike most ecosystems that depend on plants and sunlight, this cave relies on the process of chemosynthesis, where microorganisms derive energy from the chemical reactions of sulfur compounds instead of photosynthesis.

Sulfur-loving bacteria cover the walls of the cave with a slimy layer that serves as the primary food source for insect larvae and small flies, which in turn have become the preferred food for tens of thousands of spiders. Researchers observed that the largest part of the giant web concentrated in an area that witnessed an exceptional density of chironomid flies, which explains the massive size of the web.

Not the Largest Web by a Single Spider

Although this web is the largest of its kind among collective webs, some solitary spiders can also build astonishing webs. One of the most notable is the Darwin's bark spider, which lives in the forests of Madagascar and can weave webs that extend up to 25 meters over bodies of water, despite its body size being no larger than a coin.

Researchers believe that this discovery provides new evidence of how harsh and isolated environments can drive living organisms to develop unexpected cooperative behaviors that were previously unknown.

Source: Al Jazeera