Worlds Largest Spider Web

RobAtkinson · #1 (**permalink**) 28-09-2010, 02:36 PM

I know technically it's not British but it's still very cool.
BBC - Earth News - Gigantic spider's web discovered in Madagascar

Meta menardi · #2 (**permalink**) 28-09-2010, 04:19 PM

Thanks for that. There is a link in the article to a paper in the Journal of Arachnology that is very good and well illustrated.

RobAtkinson · #3 (**permalink**) 28-09-2010, 04:36 PM

That spider looks amazing

brendaward · #4 (**permalink**) 28-09-2010, 05:03 PM

Today a little spider followed me home.

He clung on to a web just outside the window. At first I thought it was a wasp but they don't do 60mph! I travelled 10 miles. If it was spinning all the time its web would have been 10 miles long plus the bit into my driveway!

Hedera · #5 (**permalink**) 28-09-2010, 09:05 PM

Amazing - I hope they find out how the spider gets across the river to make the anchor lines.

No.9 Spider · #6 (**permalink**) 01-10-2010, 12:32 PM

The remarkable bark spiders (genus Caerostris: Araneidae) are poorly known Old World tropical orb-weavers, whose diversity, currently at 11 species, is grossly underestimated. Most species build large webs at forest edges, clearings,
and gardens, but in Madagascar, probably the hot spot of Caerostris diversity, at least one species occupies a unique ecological niche: casting its web across streams, rivers and lakes, so that the orb is suspended above water and attached to substrate on each riverbank via bridgelines up to 25 m.

..........not the actual Orb Web itself.

Anchor lines in this case are usually floated on the breeze until they attach to something suitable.

No.9 Spider