A unique find: a spider web covering 106 square meters.

Zoologists discovered a spider web measuring 106 square meters in a cave.

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An international team of researchers discovered a giant spider web in Sulphur Cave on the border of Greece and Albania. The structure covers 106 square meters, making it one of the largest in the world, N+1 reported .

According to the journal Subterranean Biology, approximately 69,000 house spiders (Tegenaria domestica) participated in the web's construction. Another 42,000 Prinerigone vagans spiders live in the colony as freeloaders, not participating in the construction but feeding on the prey they catch.

The cave's unique ecosystem is based on chemosynthetic bacteria that metabolize hydrogen sulfide from an underground stream. These microorganisms feed the larvae of the chironomid mosquito, which then become the primary food source for the spiders.

The researchers note that both spider species were previously thought to be exclusively solitary. The transition to a colonial lifestyle is explained by the high concentration of prey and the genetic isolation of the population. The newly discovered colony demonstrates a unique example of social evolution in spiders.