ATHENS: 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 (1,140 square feet), according to the study in the publication Subterranean Biology.

In it are some 69,000 domestic house spiders (Tegenaria domestica), in addition to over 42,000 of Prinerigone vagans dwarf weavers (Linyphiidae), the study said.

The researchers from universities and natural history museums in Germany and Italy called the discovery “the first documented case of colonial web formation” of two species that are solitary.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2025