CHAPTER 8 

 Invertebrates of the Carlsbad Cavern 1 



Compared with other more open caves of the desert 

 region, the Carlsbad Cavern has a very meager inver- 

 tebrate fauna, consisting so far as determined of a few 

 insects, spiders, mites, millipedes, and scorpions (Fig. 

 67). 



This paucity of life is evidently due in part to the 

 restricted openings, steep descents and great depth of 

 the cave, but still more to the lack of organic matter to 

 serve as food for such life. Plant life in the cave is 

 practically limited to lichen growth in the first rooms 

 and abundant molds throughout the cave. The only 

 other organic matter that can serve as animal food is 



1 This chapter has been prepared mainly from field notes contrib- 

 uted by O. G. Babcock, of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology, who was 

 detailed by F. C. Bishopp, of the Texas Division of the Bureau, to 

 help collect the insects of the Carlsbad Cavern, and worked several 

 days with me in the cave during the last week of April, 1924. A 

 thorough collection even of the species in the cave could not be made 

 in this time, and the rich and interesting outside insect and other 

 invertebrate fauna could not be touched. The present list, however, 

 contains some new and interesting species and suggests the possibili- 

 ties of many more to be collected. 



The specimens have been identified so far as possible by specialists 

 in the Bureau of Entomology, the Diptera by C. T. Greene, the 

 Coleoptera by H. S. Barber, the Lepidoptera by C. Heinrich, the 

 Orthoptera by A. N. Caudell, the Siphonoptera by C. R. Shannon, 

 and the spiders and mites by Dr. H. E. Ewing and C. R. Crosby. 

 The cordial assistance and cooperation of the staff of the Bureau 

 is gratefully acknowledged. — Vernon Bailey. 



171 



