Scientists have discovered some of world's biggest, strongest spider webs, one of which, created by Darwin's bark spider, spans over a river in Madagascar.
In 2008, zoologists discovered a river-spanning spider web dwarfing a park ranger in Madagascar.
Made of the world's strongest known biological material, the web is the product of a new species, the Darwin's bark spider, which makes the world's largest webs of any single spider, according to new studies.
Zoologist Ingi Agnarsson of the University of Puerto Rico and colleagues have found Darwin's bark spider webs as wide as 82 feet (25 meters)-about as long as two city buses in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park.
Though the new species' webs are overall the world's largest, other spiders might exist that create larger orbs-the spiral at the center of the web-according to study co-author Todd Blackledge, a biologist at the University of Akron in Ohio.
Despite spinning webs of Spider-Man-like size and strength, the Darwin's bark spider uses them to feed mainly on small fry-insects such as mayflies and dragonflies, the team found.
The weavers of the largest Darwin's bark spider webs are almost always female, said Agnarsson.
more World's biggest, strongest spider webs discovered
In 2008, zoologists discovered a river-spanning spider web dwarfing a park ranger in Madagascar.
Made of the world's strongest known biological material, the web is the product of a new species, the Darwin's bark spider, which makes the world's largest webs of any single spider, according to new studies.
Zoologist Ingi Agnarsson of the University of Puerto Rico and colleagues have found Darwin's bark spider webs as wide as 82 feet (25 meters)-about as long as two city buses in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park.
Though the new species' webs are overall the world's largest, other spiders might exist that create larger orbs-the spiral at the center of the web-according to study co-author Todd Blackledge, a biologist at the University of Akron in Ohio.
Despite spinning webs of Spider-Man-like size and strength, the Darwin's bark spider uses them to feed mainly on small fry-insects such as mayflies and dragonflies, the team found.
The weavers of the largest Darwin's bark spider webs are almost always female, said Agnarsson.
more World's biggest, strongest spider webs discovered