Cave Insect

Cave Insect

Caves are perhaps the most distinct and well-defined of insect habitats. A number of insects are permanent habitual inhabitants of caves, characterized by marked specializations for the extreme conditions. These are the true cavernicole species. Most caverniculous insect species are severely restricted wholly to certain caves or occur in generally similar caves of the same region. Some cave insects such as grasshoppers and Collembola are, however, rather widely distributed and may be found in caves in different areas. Most of these true cave dwellers have no closely related groups on the open ground. The caves appear to have become the last refugium for many ancient types of insects, which are not found any more free in the open above ground in the region. The cave fauna thus represent, at least in part, relicts. Cave insects, when suddenly exposed to the outside world, often succumb very rapidly.

True caverniculous species are found not only among insects but also in diverse other groups like planarians, Oligochaeta, Polychaeta, leeches, Mollusca, fish, many Crustacea (such as Isopoda, Amphipoda, Syncardida, Decapoda, and Copepoda), predatory Chilopoda, mites, opilionids, chermetids, spiders, etc. Insects are of course very abundant and range from Campodea and numerous Collembola to Carabidae, Silphidae, Curculionidae, some Orthoptera, blattids, Trichoptera and Diptera.