Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Researchers have discovered what could happen in the world largest known spider’s The Web, an arachnid “megacity” containing thousands of insects cave But Albania–Greece border,
The newly discovered web is a massive structure spanning 100 square meters and home to a colony of 69,000 domesticated animals spiders, also known as barn funnel weaver or tegenaria domesticaand 42,000 Prenorigone Wagons, A species of sheet weaver spiders.
Social spiders are known to build communal webs, which can be inhabited by thousands of insects, but it is already quite rare to find huge web structures inhabited by a single species. But never before have researchers documented a cooperative web woven by multiple individuals of different spiders species,
Explorers first came across the vast web in 2022 during an underground wildlife survey.
They told researchers about the “Spider Megacity”, who visited the cave several times to study it – the entrance of which was in Greece and the deeper parts in Albania.
The researchers tested DNA samples to confirm the identity of the web-weaving species. What is even more remarkable about this web is that both species are generally solitary – they do not usually share the web.
“The most impressive phenomenon in this cave is a giant colonial spider web that covers an estimated 100 square meters of cave wall and contains 69,000 specimens. tea domestica and 42,000 samples P wagons, They wrote in a study published in underground biology,
“Both of these are surface species that have never been reported to form colonies,” he said, “and molecular evidence suggests that sulfur cave populations do not exchange individuals with the surface.”
The researchers evaluated how the arachnids survived in the cave’s harsh conditions with no sunlight and high levels of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas.
They found that the microbes growing in the cave system were eaten by tiny mosquitoes, which in turn were trapped in giant webs, providing an abundant food source for the spiders.
“Colonization of Sulfur Cave tea domestica was likely motivated by the abundant food resources represented by the dense flocks of chironomids thriving in the cave,” the scientists wrote.
DNA analysis showed that the spiders were different from their relatives outside the cave, suggesting that they had adapted to the cave’s unique environment.
Scientists suspect that the cave may be too small due to the lack of light in the cave. P Wagons A species that lives inconspicuously among barn funnel spiders.