| Spiders worked together to weave massive web | | Print | |
| 09/14/07 | |
 Three times the spiders built it. Three times wind and rain ravaged it. Tuesday afternoon, thousands of spiders were back at it again, working to rebuild the massive web that at one time stretched about 200 yards, covering bushes and trees to create a creepy canopy. Researchers say they think thousands of spiders from different species worked together to make one large, all-encompassing web, unusual from the traditional individual webs that normally would be woven. Together, the spiders have built and rebuilt a web that has caught potentially tens of thousands of flies and bugs and the attention of people nationwide. "These spiders seem to be working together to build it back," said Zach Lewis, an office clerk at the Lake Tawakoni park. "It's really something to see. They're crawling on trees, on the ground, everywhere. We're here praying for rain all the time, but with something like this, you kinda want the rain to stop." Ever since the web was noticed this summer at the state park about 50 miles east of Dallas, tourists and park workers have been amazed by its magnitude. Researchers say it likely took 1 ½ to two months to weave such a large web. Researchers took samples of the spiders in late August, and Allen Dean, an entomologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, helped identify them. Source - Seattle Times
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