Spider City!
The world’s largest spiderweb is home to more than 100,000 spiders.
© Urak et al.—Subterranean Biology/Reuters
A cave explorer stands next to a network of spiderwebs in Sulfur Cave on the border between Greece and Albania. This may be the world’s largest spiderweb.
Scientists are studying a “spider mega-city” in a cave on the border between Greece and Albania. Sulfur Cave is home to what may be the world’s largest spiderweb, with tons of eight-legged residents. Even more remarkably, the spiders on the web are not all the same species.
The giant web, which is really many funnel-shaped spiderwebs put together, measures more than 1,100 square feet (105 square meters). That’s about the size of many school classrooms. It’s a good thing the web is so large, because scientists say that more than 100,000 spiders make it their home!
There are two species on the web: Tegenaria domestica (also called the barn funnel weaver or the domestic house spider) and Prinerigone vagans. Scientists say the T. domestica spiders built the web and the P. vagans spiders moved in.
Urák I, Vrenozi B, Głąbiak Z, Lecoquierre N, Eiberger C, Maraun M, Ştefan A, Flot J-F, Brad T, Dainelli L, Sarbu SM, Băncilă RI (2025) An extraordinary colonial spider community in Sulfur Cave (Albania/Greece) sustained by chemoautotrophy. Subterranean Biology 53: 155-177. https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.53.162344 (CC-BY-4.0)
A Tegenaria domestica spider sits on a spiderweb in Sulfur Cave.
This living arrangement surprised scientists for two reasons. First, both species are solitary, meaning they usually live alone. Second, T. domestica spiders (the larger of the two species) would normally eat P. vagans spiders. So how are these two species peacefully sharing a giant quilt of a spiderweb? Scientists believe the cave is dark enough to hide the smaller spiders from the larger ones.
Although these spiders wouldn’t normally share a web, Sulfur Cave offers delicious advantages. It’s full of tiny living things called microbes, which are eaten by small animals such as midges. A midge is a type of fly. Plenty of midges get caught in the web, so the spiders get what they need. For thousands of spiders, this cave city is the perfect home.
