Overview
- The web covers about 106 square meters along a low, narrow passage in Sulfur Cave on the Albanian–Greek border.
- Counts estimate roughly 69,000 Tegenaria domestica and more than 42,000 Prinerigone vagans sharing thousands of interconnected funnel-shaped webs.
- The study reports the first documented case of colonial web formation for these two widespread species.
- Analyses indicate a sulfur-driven energy flow from bacteria to biofilms to non-biting midges to spiders, supported by hydrogen sulfide in the cave.
- Molecular and gut-content data show less diverse microbiomes and genetic differences from outside relatives, and researchers are pursuing follow-up fieldwork after an initial 2022 discovery and 2024 sampling.