Discovery of massive spider's web in Greece reveals unexpected behavior
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."
The 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."
