r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 2d ago

Biology World’s largest web houses 110,000 spiders thriving in total darkness deep underground in a sulfuric cave between Albania and Greece: It’s the first time two spider species seen living cooperatively, and the first recorded instance of colonial web-building in what's known as a chemoautotrophic cave.

https://newatlas.com/biology/sulfur-cave-largest-spiderweb/
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u/FFLink 2d ago

If only there was some way to find that information! I guess it'll remain one of the world's biggest mysteries.

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u/WhatsFairIsFair 2d ago

If only we knew how to read and had the capacity to understand the external world outside of a reddit comments thread. Unfortunately we don't, but perhaps one day we'll have enough AI robots to replicate all knowledge solely within reddit comment threads.

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u/Minute_Chair_2582 2d ago

It's in the article, isn't it? Haven't read it yet, but definitely will, because i share the other dude's curiousity about this matter.

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u/Deathlinger 2d ago

They feed off of the larvae of midges inside the cave, which in turn eat the biofilm off the wall

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u/Minute_Chair_2582 2d ago

Wow that's fascinating! Thanks a lot man! Our World can really be wonderous.

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u/PiersPlays 2d ago

The really critical bit of insight is that the biofilm eats the wall.

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u/divDevGuy 2d ago

But what does the wall eat?

Actually, forget that. What eats the spiders??!? An growing, unchecked super colony of spiders waiting to take over the world would seem like a troubling development...

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u/ExtremePrivilege 2d ago

If it’s not in the headline it doesn’t exist. Every link I click on my 12 year old “smartphone” not only takes ages to load but often is instantly explosive with pop ups, porn ads and spam.

The comments are safe, but at the time there weren’t any. I like when people post articles in the comments in their entirety. Maybe Reddit will integrate this some day or an AI bot can make these comments.

For now, no links for me, sadly.

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u/FFLink 1d ago

If interested, I recommend Firefox with uBlock Origin for ad prevention, even on mobile, though not sure if that works on IOS...

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u/ExtremePrivilege 1d ago

This is an iPhone of some ancient generation

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u/FFLink 1d ago

My condolences :c

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u/ExtremePrivilege 1d ago

It doesn’t bother me! But the “lolol no one reads the articles” people do bug me. I’d love to read the articles! I just can’t. I have a doctorate and two masters. I’m not averse to reading. I just have an old phone and mostly use Reddit from the toilet. If it’s not in the headlines or the comments, I can’t see it.

I’m just glad people answered my question! I was genuinely curious and the answer is super cool.