this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2025
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[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

imagine how many bugs must be in there for them to all stay fed

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 50 points 1 day ago (3 children)

in the cave, the air close to the stream is packed with tiny Tanytarsus albisutus midges, whose larvae feed on the bacterial biofilms at the water’s edge. Their density – 45,000 per sq m (about 4,180 per sq ft) – provides an all-you-can-eat buffet for the spider colony, which essentially eradicates any food competition that would normally exist.

Okay I want to unimagine it now

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It is hard to decide what is worse, 45k bugs per mΒ² or 110k spiders with a communal net dining on them...

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm just glad they are staying in that condemned cave.

[–] HowAbt2day@futurology.today 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Don’t the spiders get bored of eating the same shit all day, every day?

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Two words: M SG

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You gonna eat the same shit every day or choose to die?

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 16 points 1 day ago

Chinese again? We had chinese food yesterday.

People in china eat chinese food every day.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 22 hours ago

Hmm. I wonder. It can't be just humans, right? Why not spiders?

[–] webp@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I hope there is a video of this

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You wanna hold the camera??

[–] webp@mander.xyz 3 points 21 hours ago

Videos exist so cowards like me don't have to be there in person

[–] 20cello@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I like spiders, they eat mosquitoes

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 22 points 1 day ago

My bedroom has super high ceilings, and one night, there was a fly in there. Not just a fly, it was the fattest fly i have ever seen. It was so loud that i couldn't sleep. She also decided to land on my face every other minute. Because of the high ceilings, i didn't even see a point to try to catch it, that thing absolutely terrorised me. Suddenly i heard how she flapped her wings erratically so i jumped up and investigated.

The smallest spider in my whole house just made the catch of her lifetime.i pointed at it and laughed like an insane super villain. I love my little spider friends.

[–] ekZepp@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

Yep. They've earned all my love just for this small beautiful fact. πŸ•ΈπŸ’•

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[–] webp@mander.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

Yes. To the people cowering away from this cave, at least there are probably no mosquitoes.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes!

Half of these at least.
The rest are prob a bit tiny.

[–] the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tens of thousands thriving in total darkness on a shared web? Sounds familiar.

Spiderlemmy! Spiderlemmy! Does whatever a Spiderlemmy does!

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Menzoberranzan

[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

According to the article, the air smells like rotten eggs, there are sulphur-converting bacteria in the air, tiny little midges everywhere, and that dude just stands there with no protection other than an overall and a helmet.

Oh yeah, and a crap-ton of spiders.

[–] Tlf@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Another reason to leave those caves alone

It's making me want to go to there.

Holy makerel, that's a lot πŸ•·οΈ πŸ•ΈοΈ

[–] heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net 8 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I'd just call that the "nope cave"

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago

Spiderverse at home:

[–] dukeofdummies@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Woah, could this actually turn spider silk farms viable?

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sounds like the conditions that allow for this are pretty specific, and while you could harvest this, it would likely decimate the population.

Could it be artificially recreated? Probably, but at that point it’s looped back around to being non-viable.

[–] dukeofdummies@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, the conditions are specific, but that's also true for Wasabi and truffles. The big problem with spiders has always been their canabalistic and solitary natures. Truffles and Wasabi don't kill eachother.

Also just because the biome is specific, doesn't mean it's necessary. Biggest issues are probably their immune system. Such isolated things are usually easily hit by fungus or bacteria.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I thought it was output that was the bottleneck.

[–] dukeofdummies@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I mean that's the end result.

If they don't get along then each one needs their own box/pen, which means they're fed and harvested separately, which makes it hella inefficient.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 hours ago

Is there as much fibre in a web as a silkworm cocoon, though?

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Amazing!

This finding is the first documented case of colonial behavior between two solitary species of spider

And one species (Prinerigone vagans) is 2-3mm, the other (Tegenaria domestica) 7.5-11.5mm in body length.

Like a bunch of introverted humans and cats prob.

Yeah, same here.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 5 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I didnt know social spiders already existed, reminded me of this 2002 BBC speculative documentary: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0kGtDyuXMDU where the last mammals are hamsters that communal spider society herds :D

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

why does this make me hungry

It is hard to imagine just from those photos. And that is probably a good thing 😬

[–] banause@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago

HANS! πŸ”΄πŸ‘„πŸ”΄

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Yeesh. Walking though a web housing just one spider is bad enough ... And that's when there's light for me to see what happened.