What is thought to be the world’s largest-known spider’s web, housing tens of thousands of arachnids, has been discovered in a cave on the Albanian-Greek border.After researchers published their findings of two different spider species peacefully cohabiting in a giant colony nestled in a pitch-black, sulfur-rich cave, evolutionary biologist Lena Grinsted likened the “extremely rare” occurrence to humans living in an apartment block.”When I saw this study, I was very excited because … group living is really rare in spiders,” Grinsted, a senior lecturer at the U.K.’s University of Portsmouth, told The Associated Press. “The fact that there was this massive colony of spiders living in a place that nobody had really noticed before — I find extremely exciting.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe results of the study, published last month in the journal Subterranean Biology, spread rapidly online due to the striking images of the giant 1,140-square-foot spider’s web, a carpet-thick sprawl stretching along a narrow passage wall inside Sulfur Cave, which extends into Albania from its entrance in Greece.This arachnophobe’s worst nightmare was quickly labelled the “world’s largest spiderweb.”An undated image shows spider’s webs on a wall in Sulfur Cave, on the Greek-Albanian border. / Credit: Istvan Urak / APBut the most surprising thing about the spider colony — which boasts an estimated 110,000 spiders — had less to do with its size and more to do with what scientists found inside the huge mass of funnel-shaped webs.Two different spider species — about 69,000 Tegenaria domestica, or common house spider, and 42,000 Prinerigone vagans — were living side by side and thriving. The behavior, which had never been observed before, stunned scientists as, typically, the larger house spider would prey on its smaller neighbor.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdv …
