If you are one of those who don’t like having eight-legged neighbors in your own house, you might want to skip this. The largest spider web in the world has been discovered, with more than 111,000 spiders living together in a community. Ugh, how creepy! But don’t worry, it’s not nearby. It was found in a sulfur cave between Albania and Greece, and yes, more than one hundred thousand spiders living in the same place…
One cave, two species, and a world record
The discovery was led by Sapientia Hungarian University, and they found a web. A giant web, a silvery mantle covering an entire underground tunnel, measuring more than 106 square meters, where two different species of spiders live: Tegenaria domestica and Prinerigone vagans.
This is already insane if you think that spiders are generally solitary and territorial animals. But here they are… living together peacefully, hunting together, and maintaining their web as if they were neighbors in an apartment building in any city. And they don’t fight, they just coexist. It’s something incredible.
A simple exploration
Was in 2022 when a group of speleologists went into the Vromoner Canyon, an area full of little-explored caves. There, they noticed a wall covered by a white tangle that seemed to move a lot… 111,000 spiders, how could it not move…
They went again in 2024 but this time together with a team of biologists. And they discovered they were facing a living, active, and cooperative colony of spiders.
An extreme ecosystem
The cave in question is not exactly a pleasant place to live. It is full of sulfur, acid, and toxic vapors, but that hostile environment has created a small ecosystem where microorganisms thrive, forming the base of the entire food chain.
These spiders have learned to survive in total darkness, adapting their vision and behavior. They don’t compete or eat each other (which would be logical, seeing that there are about 111,000 of them!!). Instead, they have found a way to cooperate to catch cave insects and survive together, like an evolutionary pact between predators.
How so many manage to live together
The web is made up of overlapping layers that act as a giant trap. Thousands of spiders patrol and repair the threads while others remain still, waiting for prey to fall in.
The cave’s humid environment keeps the silk intact for years, allowing the web to continue growing until it reached this incredible size.
And indeed, what stands out most is that such a large, diverse, and ancient web had never been documented before.
What this discovery means for science
Scientists are now studying how the cave’s chemical and light conditions affect the biology and behavior of these spiders, and they also want to analyze the composition of their silk, which may have unique properties, perhaps more resistant, more durable, or capable of withstanding corrosive environments.
Beyond the amazement (and the chills this gives), the discovery could help understand how cooperative relationships emerge in normally solitary species.
Fascination and fear
The photos and videos of this gigantic web have gone viral, and thousands of people on social media reacted with curiosity and horror upon seeing the image of that wall covered with thousands of hanging spiders. And yes, just thinking about it makes our skin crawl (understandably, I think).
But some users can’t stop admiring this phenomenon, it’s incredible, and we know it! Still, the thought of 111,000 spiders sharing one space is a bit scary.
But don’t worry, these spiders pose no danger, first, because they live isolated in underground areas, and second, because not all spiders are bad; some are actually quite cute!
Yes, 111,000 spiders might make you dizzy, but if you manage to think beyond 888,000 eyes staring at you, think about it, a spider city! Nature keeps getting more and more astonishing.