{"id":126871,"date":"2025-11-07T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/126871\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T13:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:30:11","slug":"this-spider-megacity-may-be-the-largest-web-ever-found-but-whats-inside-is-even-more-extraordinary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/126871\/","title":{"rendered":"This \u2018spider megacity\u2019 may be the largest web ever found. But what\u2019s inside is even more extraordinary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Researchers have discovered what could be the world\u2019s largest known<\/a> spider\u2019s<\/a> web, an arachnid \u201cmegacity\u201d teeming with tens of thousands of the creatures in a cave<\/a> on the Albania-Greece border<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newly discovered web is a massive structure spanning 100 square metres and is home to a colony of around 69,000 domestic house spiders<\/a>, also known as the barn funnel weaver or Tegenaria domestica, and 42,000 Prinerigone vagans, a species of sheet weaver spider.<\/p>\n

Social spiders are known to make communal webs that may host thousands of them, and finding a giant web structure inhabited by an otherwise solitary species is already quite rare. But never before had researchers documented a cooperative web woven by individuals belonging to multiple different species<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Explorers first came across the giant web during an underground wildlife survey in 2022. <\/p>\n

\"Rare<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Rare colonial spider web in a cave on Albania\u2019s border with Greece (Marek Audy, Subterranean Biology)<\/p>\n

They reported the \u201cspider megacity\u201d to researchers, who then made multiple site visits to the cave \u2013 with its entrance in Greece and deep sections in Albania \u2013 to study it.<\/p>\n

Researchers tested DNA samples to confirm the identities of the species weaving the web. What\u2019s even more remarkable about this web is that both of the species in it are normally solitary \u2013\u00a0they don\u2019t typically share webs at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most impressive occurrence in this cave is a large colonial spider web that covers an estimated 100 square metres of cave wall and hosts 69,000 specimens of T domestica and 42,000 specimens of P vagans,\u201d they wrote in a study published in Subterranean Biology. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

A female Tegenaria domestica in the sulphur cave (Subterranean Biology 2025)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are both surface species that have never been reported to form colonies,\u201d they noted, \u201cand molecular evidence suggests the Sulfur Cave population doesn\u2019t exchange individuals with the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers assessed how the arachnids survived in the harsh conditions of the cave with no sunlight and high levels of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.<\/p>\n

\"Prinerigone<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Prinerigone vagans specimens from the sulphur cave (Subterranean Biology 2025)<\/p>\n

They found that microbes thriving in the cave system were consumed by tiny midges, which in turn got trapped in the giant web to provide an abundant food source for the spiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe colonisation of Sulfur Cave by T domestica was most likely driven by abundant food resources represented by the dense swarm of chironomids thriving in the cave,\u201d scientists wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Sulphur<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Sulphur cave spiders (I Urak et al, Subterranean Biology)<\/p>\n

DNA analysis found the spiders were distinct from their relatives outside the cave, suggesting they had adapted to the cave’s unique environment.<\/p>\n

Scientists suspect the lack of light in the cave may be enabling the much smaller P vagans species to live among the barn funnel spiders inconspicuously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-126871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}