Deep beneath the Albanian-Greek border, scientists have uncovered the world's largest spider web, a sprawling, sticky network so vast that it could easily trap a human being. Hidden inside a pitch-black sulfur cave, the web stretches across more than 1,100 square feet, roughly the size of a small house.
The eerie find, published in Subterranean Biology, reveals that over 111,000 spiders from two species, the domestic house spider (Tegenaria domestica) and the sheet weaver (Prinerigone vagans), live together in this tangled maze of silk.
A dark ecosystem of 110,000 spiders
Researchers from the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania describe the cave as a rare case where two spider species coexist peacefully, feeding on tiny midges instead of each other. The complete absence of light, combined with an abundance of food, has created an unnatural alliance between predators that would normally be enemies.
"This isn't a colony like ants or bees," says Berlin arachnologist Jason Dunlop. "It's more like a massive flat share, thousands of spiders crammed into the same space because there's plenty to eat."