Giant spider web discovered in cave on Greece-Albania border

Scientists have discovered a giant spider web spanning about half the size of a tennis court and with some 111,000 spiders in a cave on the border between Greece and Albania.

The web in the "Sulfur Cave" in the Vromoner Gorge covers some 106 square metres, according to the study in the publication Subterranean Biology. In it are some 69,000 domestic house spiders, in addition to over 42,000 of Prinerigone vagans dwarf weavers, the study said.

The researchers from universities and natural history museums in Albania, Romania, Belgium, Germany and Italy called the discovery "the first documented case of colonial web formation" of two species that are normally solitary. The spiders share the cave with numerous other insects, including centipedes, scorpions and beetles.