When you think about social animals, spiders are not exactly the first critters that come to mind. Normally, spiders are solitary creatures, and if they encounter other spiders, even members of their own species, they will resort to aggression. However, this is not true for all spiders. There are a few families of spiders that are highly sociable, and they are found on just about every continent.
Some of these social spiders, such as Agelena consociata in The Congo, reside in groups of as many as 1500. This allows them to build massive communal webs to capture and share food. With that in mind, you probably wouldn’t want to discover a nest of these in your garage.
In the video below, you can watch the highly sociable behavior of Agelena consociata.
But Agelena consociata is just one example of social spiders…
In Australia and New Zealand, the huntsman spider species Delena cancerides is also quite communal, living in groups of up to 300 spiders.
However, unlike the smaller Agelena consociata, Delena cancerides do not build webs. Instead, they actively hunt for food in packs, and they even share their prey.
Yet, they do not tolerate rival colonies, and they will resort to cannibalism against them.
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