Largest Spider Web Found in Border Cave

Scientists exploring a sulfur cave along the Albania-Greece border have uncovered what appears to be the largest spider web ever documented, a vast network spanning more than 1,040 square feet and housing around 111,000 spiders from two typically solitary species.

The discovery occurred in Sulfur Cave, a harsh underground environment in Vromoner Canyon at an elevation of about 1,140 feet. Members of the Czech Speleological Society first encountered the web in 2022 during an expedition. Researchers from Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania in Romania followed up with detailed analysis in early 2024, collecting specimens and documenting the site. Their findings, published this month in the journal Subterranean Biology, describe the web as a sprawling patchwork of thousands of interconnected funnel-shaped structures clinging to the walls of a low-ceilinged, narrow passage near the cave's entrance. The passage lies in a permanently dark zone, where the web's pale, silky mass ripples under artificial light, resembling a dense tent city.

The colony consists primarily of two spider species: Tegenaria domestica, known as the domestic house spider or barn funnel weaver,...