Spiders are super solitary creatures. I wonder, though, if they could become social.
You might enjoy the book Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A spider web unlike any seen before
11–20 of 156 posts
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#12This is fascinating. My first question would be what are they catching? What can sustain that number of spiders so far underground?
From 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!
From 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.
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#13[flagged]
That's just Shelob's nest.
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#14One 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!
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#15Spiders are super solitary creatures. I wonder, though, if they could become social.
There are hundreds of species of social spiders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_spider
Wow, 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”
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#16This is fascinating. My first question would be what are they catching? What can sustain that number of spiders so far underground?
Every part of Earth's crust is jam packed with life.
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#17Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#18This is fascinating. My first question would be what are they catching? What can sustain that number of spiders so far underground?
Also, 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.
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#19This is fascinating. My first question would be what are they catching? What can sustain that number of spiders so far underground?
Also, 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.
Well the article claims cave is pitch dark, so I guess the invisible part is granted anyway.
Re: A spider web unlike any seen before
#20This is fascinating. My first question would be what are they catching? What can sustain that number of spiders so far underground?
Also, 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.
[deleted]