Overview
- An international team reports in Subterranean Biology a 106 m² web complex sheltering more than 110,000 spiders.
- The colony consists of about 69,000 Tegenaria domestica and roughly 42,000 Prinerigone vagans co-constructing thousands of funnel-style subnets.
- Stable-isotope evidence links the ecosystem’s energy base to sulfur-oxidizing microbes that support midge populations captured by the spiders.
- Genetic and microbiome analyses show marked divergence from surface relatives, consistent with long isolation and subterranean adaptation.
- Researchers call for protection of the fragile, transboundary Sulfur Cave, which has its entrance on the Greek side, following initial documentation in 2022 and field sampling in 2024.