What is thought to be the world’s largest-known spider’s web, housing tens of thousands of arachnids, has been discovered in a cave on the Albanian-Greek border.

After researchers published their findings of two different spider species peacefully cohabiting in a giant colony nestled in a pitch-black, sulfur-rich cave, evolutionary biologist Lena Grinsted likened the “extremely rare” occurrence to humans living in an apartment block.

“When I saw this study, I was very excited because … group living is really rare in spiders,” Dr. Grinsted, a senior lecturer at the U.K.’s University of Portsmouth, told The Associated Press. “The fact that there was this massive colony of spiders living in a place that nobody had really noticed before — I find extremely exciting.”

The results of the study

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