x
Breaking News
More () »

Massive spiderweb blankets Greek beach for spider mating 'party'

The cloudy web stretches over an abandoned boat, trees and rows of vegetation.
Credit: Pittman, Travis
A massive spiderweb stretches across a beach in Aitoliko, Greece. (Image is screenshot captured from Giannis Giannakopoulos's Facebook page)

A soft, white blanket of webbing formed near a lagoon in western Greece, reportedly allowing a massive mating "party" to ensue between spiders in the town of Aitoliko. Photographs published online show the nearly 1,000-foot web stretching across a beach, according to the Greek site NewsIt.

The thick, fuzzy covering comes from Tetragnatha spiders, a type of spider that frequents tropical climates, as Maria Chatzaki, a biology professor at Greece's Democritus University of Thrace, told Newsit.

"It's as if the spiders are taking advantage of these conditions and are having a kind of a party," Chatzaki said, according to a translation by the BBC. "They mate, they reproduce and provide a whole new generation."

The tiny spiders don't pose a danger to area humans or plants, Chatzaki told NewsIt, though their rising numbers may be linked to an increase in mosquito populations.

The professor said that "huge numbers of male and female spiders" mate underneath the massive blanket, spawning a new generation before meeting their own bittersweet ends.

"The spiders will have their party and will soon die," she said, per the BBC.

The cloudy web stretches over an abandoned boat, trees and rows of vegetation in photographs published to Facebook by user Giannis Giannakopoulos.

Before You Leave, Check This Out