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A spider web unlike any seen before
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- mkl 9mo agohttps://archive.ph/25NVv https://archive.ph/25NVv Some other stories about it that got no traction here: https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/worlds-biggest-spiderweb-discovered-inside-sulfur-cave-with-111-000-arachnids-living-in-pitch-black https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/worlds-biggest-s..., https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-largest-spider-web-discovered-in-bizarre-sulfur-cave/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-largest-sp...
- khantsithu 9mo ago[flagged]
- EbNar 9mo agoThat's just Shelob's nest.
- kennethrc 9mo ago... excuse me while I Nope! TF out
- Lio 9mo agoThis is fascinating. My first question would be what are they catching? What can sustain that number of spiders so far underground?
- barryvan 9mo agoFrom the article: > The vast spider population is attributed to an abundant food supply: more than 2.4 million midges in the cave, ready to be entangled in the intricate web. ...although I guess the question then is what sustains the millions of midges!
- jbotz 9mo agoFrom the livescience article linked by another poster: biofilm produced by sulfur-eating bacteria, which in turn metabolize sulfur from the sulfur-rich stream in the cave. So the whole food-chain here is: sulfur -> bacteria -> midges -> spiders.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ginko 9mo agoSeems like a great place for spider-eating frogs to move into.
- perihelions 9mo agoThat's the interesting part! (And which the submitted NYT story regrettably neglects). It's a chemoautotrophic ecosystem[0] largely independent of the sun, and of photosynthetic life. Akin to hydrothermal vents[1] in the ocean, and the lifeforms that eat that effluent. [0] https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/ https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/ ("An extraordinary colonial spider community in Sulfur Cave (Albania/Greece) sustained by chemoautotrophy") > "Stable isotope analyses (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) revealed that the trophic web sustaining this assemblage is fueled by in situ primary production from sulfur-oxidizing microbial biofilms then transferred through chironomid larvae and adults to higher trophic levels." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent
- pharrington 9mo agoEvery part of Earth's crust is jam packed with life.
- kijin 9mo agoAlso, this web is so dense it looks like a solid sheet of silk, studded with the remains of its past victims. Wouldn't that be a little too conspicuous? I thought spider webs were supposed to be nearly invisible to the prey.
- szszrk 9mo agoWell the article claims cave is pitch dark, so I guess the invisible part is granted anyway.
- kijin 9mo agoCave-dwelling animals don't just crash into walls all the time, so by "visible" I mean large enough and dense enough to be recognized as an obstacle in whatever navigation system they use.
- hnlmorg 9mo agoThey do rest on walls though.
- thaumasiotes 9mo agoIn this case every part of the wall is actually just a spiderweb.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- dr_dshiv 9mo agoSpiders are super solitary creatures. I wonder, though, if they could become social.
- albedoa 9mo agoThere are hundreds of species of social spiders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_spider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_spider
- nomilk 9mo agoImpressive that there's a wiki article on precisely that topic.
- dr_dshiv 9mo agoWow, thank you! I obviously had no idea! Although, in terms of numbers, according to that Wikipedia: “Several permutations of social behavior exist amongst the 23 species of spider considered to be quasi-social out of some 45,000 known species of spider”
- sph 9mo agoYou might enjoy the book Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- motoxpro 9mo agoThe perfect thread and comment to recommend this book!
- Nition 9mo agoOr maybe A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge.
- MrVandemar 9mo agoOr maybe Web (1979) by John Wyndham.
- apricot13 9mo agoOne half of me is fascinated by this as spiders are such amazing creatures. So long as they don't break our house rules they're welcome to stay, especially the spindles! The other half of me didn't scroll far enough down and a a slither of the video played at the bottom of the screen making me think a spider was running across my arm and made me jump!
- colordrops 9mo agoYeah same, we do not bother spiders in the house unless they jump into bed or on food or whatever, and then we just take them outside. With spiders and cats in the house we never see any flies or other insects.
- thaumasiotes 9mo agoWe have a lot of spiders and yet they don't seem to do much about the silverfish. :( They do hunt millipedes and then drag the corpses back to their lair to form a millipede graveyard.
- whywhywhywhy 9mo agoSilverfish are one of the few insects grosser than any spider, even the way they scuttle is revolting.
- thaumasiotes 9mo agoI'm more offended by the fact that they eat books and bookbinding glue.
- bob1029 9mo agoI have a rule with the spiders where if they get too bold they get the vacuum. I don't mind them lurking in the corners but I don't want them crawling across my desk. I think most of them understand the arrangement by now. Only occasional enforcement is necessary.
- reconnecting 9mo agoI had so many thoughts about web spiders (crawlers) and what they might create that's never been seen before, until I read this article. Nature is always several steps ahead.
- hacker_88 9mo agoAll went to the cave to get away from everything
- mxkopy 9mo agoOh, to be a spider eating 2.4 million midges
- maelito 9mo agoThe earth is full of wonders but we're destroying most of them.
- functionmouse 9mo agoNot "we", it's the billionaires.
- 6LLvveMx2koXfwn 9mo agoMy gas fired central heating is set to 20 degrees C. So if not 'you', then definitely 'me'!
- nicbou 9mo agoThey produce the goods that we consume. We are the ones working in their marketing department, building their online stores, streamlining consumption. Then we go home and buy stuff we don't need.
- casey2 9mo ago[flagged]
- antonvs 9mo agoYour comment is "human slop". Don't become the problem you're complaining about. The article includes a link to the original paper: https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/ https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/
- shawabawa3 9mo ago"The cave is full of hydrogen sulphide gas in too high concentrations for most animals to survive" Over a shot of a bunch of people walking around with no masks on?
- nosianu 9mo agoRead a bit further, the very next sentence??? > “All you could smell was sulfur hydrogen, and you cannot breathe,” Dr. Vrenozi said, recalling that most of the researchers were wearing masks. But as they descended deeper into the cave, she said that “you get used to the smell of spoiled eggs.” Also, you use "" but you are not quoting, the text inside your quotes does not exist in the article. The actual quote would be > The cave is hard to reach and is filled with foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, in concentrations too great for most animals to live there.
- voidUpdate 9mo agoGetting used to the smell doesn't mean it's safe though... And isn't the safe level of hydrogen sulphide "if you can smell it, its not safe"?
- antonvs 9mo agoGetting used to the smell could be an extremely bad sign, in fact. With hydrogen sulfide, olfactory fatigue can occur at 100 ppm, and paralysis of the olfactory nerve has been reported at 150 ppm[1]. Those levels are considered "immediately dangerous to life and health (level that interferes with the ability to escape)"[3] So you might think the gas is gone or that you're "used to it", but you're being poisoned and are at risk of losing consciousness and dying. However, according to [2], "the atmosphere in [Sulfur Cave] can reach concentrations of up to 14 ppm of H2S". According to [4] that's below the "acceptable ceiling concentration" of 20 ppm, with up to 50 ppm for a 10-minute period being acceptable for an 8-hour shift. So these levels are in the "not great, not terrible" category. Wearing a mask is highly advisable. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208170/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208170/ [2] https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/ https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/ [3] https://www.osha.gov/hydrogen-sulfide/hazards https://www.osha.gov/hydrogen-sulfide/hazards [4] https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.1000TABLEZ2 https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/19...
- thaumasiotes 9mo agoThis NYT article opens with a video showing the web and some explanatory text. The archive.today copy doesn't play the video. The thumbnail image is present. The <video> tag is present on the archived page, but its src attribute has been renamed to "old-src". Re-renaming the old-src attribute back to "src" will cause the video to play, but at that point you're playing the original non-archived video directly from nyt.com. This will presumably break if NYT takes the video down. Does archive.today not archive videos?
- eimrine 9mo agoenough good is to archive everything except videos
- thaumasiotes 9mo ago> The team of scientists discovered that 69,000 Tegenaria domestica, known as the barn funnel weaver, were living with about 42,000 Prinerigone vagans, which inhabit wet places. Usually the barn funnel weavers prey on P. vagans, which are smaller. > “But in the cave, because it’s dark in there, our hypothesis was that they do not see each other,” Blerina Vrenozi, a biologist, zoologist and ecologist at the University of Tirana in Albania said in an interview. “So they do not attack.” I thought one of the major purposes of spiderwebs was that the spider can detect the presence of something else in the web without needing to be able to see it.
- acomjean 9mo agoI think you are right. If I remember there were 2 types of silk, and they could use their legs to “listen” to vibrations when something gets caught anywhere in the web. They seem to avoid getting stuck in their own webs. But they do have 8 eyes, so I’m assuming they make visual confirmation. But these cave spiders are in the dark…
- BirAdam 9mo agoDepending upon the species, spiders can make more types of silk: strong, soft, sticking, sensing, etc. Most spiders have terrible eyesight despite having eight eyes. Those with good eyesight are jumping spiders, portia, and a few ground spiders. These species are easily distinguished by having two large front-facing eyes. Due to bad eyesight, most spiders use touch through their webs and/or hairs. The hirsute species can easily identify pretty much anything that causes a wind current near them, and most all species can easily identify prey by the distinct vibrations they make once caught in the web. If you watch most spiders, however, they can occasionally be fooled on windy day when a leaf or other detritus hits their webs, and they have to go touch it to find out it isn't prey. Eyesight just isn't a thing most are great with.
- eimrine 9mo agoMost of spiders I tried to fool can't be fooled by a leaf, they usually wait for recurring vibrations. Touching the web by a stick never produces enough good vibration to attract the spider. Baiting to things on the web is mostly about young spiders, the biggest spiders I have seen on their webs usually kind of lazy.
- ZuzuDuck 9mo agoOMG, thats look so terrifying and amazing at the same time
- pjb88 9mo agoWhat advantage would the inside spiders have? Surely they wouldn't catch any bugs? Or are they building a structure that's attractive for bugs to enter? What's the strategy for this web?
- alienbaby 9mo agoThe article mentions that the caves are filled with millions of midges providing plenty of food.
- abejfehr 9mo agoI think they're referring to the spiders that are deep in the web, since the midges presumably don't make it that deep
- eimrine 9mo agoThey may have more chances to change their skin unnoticed in the silent place.
- oneseven 9mo agomidges can fly, so presumably they would hit the web at random points. as to why flying would be useful for the midges, if they consume biofilms on the surfaces, that's less clear. perhaps over time the midges will evolve away from flying and the spiders will have to adjust their strategy.
- metronomer 9mo agoWe did it, we discovered Pharloom.
- le-mark 9mo agoI once had an apartment in an old building. The building had high ceilings and equally high wood frame windows. The windows were drafty and had visible gaps to the outside. As winter approached, and nights grew colder I set out to cover the windows with plastic film (common here for this purpose). While preparing one window in the bedroom I discovered a silken patch like a miniature of the one depicted in this article. I used my cleaning rag to wipe it away thinking any inhabitants had long since moved on. To my surprise a wisp tiny spiders scurried away from my swipe, disappearing into crevices, the base board, and carpet. Startled and not seeing any to kill, I bid them farewell, in my mind assuring myself they had moved on. That same day or the next a cold wave came through and I lied awake in bed listening to the plastic I had applied rustle from the wind. The window gaps were bigger than I’d thought. Falling into a fitful sleep under not quite adequate blankets, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my lower leg! I jumped out of bed, turned a light, and found upon examination three red punctures on my left calf. Recalling the spiders from the day before I shook out my blankets and bed sheets. I checked below the bed. Nothing, I never found the culprits. After sleeping that night on the couch, I awoke late the next. I felt feverish and disoriented. The wounds on my calf had become inflamed. The cold in the apartment added to my discomfort. The next few days were a blur. I missed work and the few social engagements I had planned. Eventually the wounds began to heal but I was still bone cold and the light from windows hurt my eyes. Winter has set in and the plastic I’d applied to the windows had detached from the wind allowing icy drafts into the apartment. I diligently applied another layer of plastic on the windows, this time using packing tape to secure the corners! It was a harsh winter and I repeated this process several times until the windows were opaque and along with the shades allowing very little light through. One day as I sat in the dark slowly eating my meal there was a knock on the door. It was my close friend from work wondering what had happened to me. I must have been a sight judging from his startled appearance. Summer came and I emerged occasionally to acquire food and other necessities only to scurry back home when the outside became too overwhelming. I eventually found remote work, and here I am today in my cold dark apartment with high ceilings and drafty windows. Note if you made it to the end, thanks for indulging me. This is based on a real apartment, windows and spiders!
- antisthenes 9mo agoI'd read a short story or a novella written by you. Hope it was not LLMd.
- foltik 9mo agoOn planet earth — population 8.3 billion — were apes that had not been known to live together harmoniously, having previously thought to be hostile to each other.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ChrisArchitect 9mo agoNon-paywall link from a previous submission when there were numerous posts about this without discussion: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/science/biggest-spiderweb-sulfur-cave.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zk8.6FXw.BUj6VYn7jSv-&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/science/biggest-spiderweb...
- briandw 9mo agoThe big problem with farming spiders for silk is that you can’t have a dense colony of them. This could a solution to that. Breeding these to make super strong silk to harvest would be really cool. Although you have to have a way of separating the strands to make thread.
- awei 9mo agoStrangely reminiscent of "Children of Time"'s beginnings of spider intelligence
- AstroNutt 9mo agoThe Wraith have arrived! Anyone that watched Stargate Atlantis gets it.
- ultim8k 9mo agoRun
- ekropotin 9mo agoI’d be careful - this spider web may be a gateway to Upside Down. Let’s just cement the whole cave just in case.
- mikeyinternews 9mo agoThe headline is very Trumpian
- xvilka 9mo agoI felt very bad for spider families who worked hard across generations to build a big and beautiful comfortable home for some clueless ancient giant with abhorrent moving appendages on its legs to tear it down with a horrific metallic instrument of torment.
- eimrine 9mo agoNot a problem at all, they have a midge budget to fix it with their chitin.
- lawlessone 9mo ago>Usually the barn funnel weavers prey on P. vagans, which are smaller. >“But in the cave, because it’s dark in there, our hypothesis was that they do not see each other,” Will they start fighting one another now lights are being shone on them?
- divbzero 9mo ago> The cave stays at about 80 degrees year-round. That seems remarkably warm. Is that typical for cave temperatures?
- ricksunny 9mo agoOdd use of the word 'pastiche' "The wider web is actually a pastiche of thousands of individual funnel-shaped webs,"
- eimrine 9mo agoIf some spiders of these two species are going to find new home without dark, will they continue to be friends?