129 



animals composing the communities are the dominating influences in 

 the woodland environments. In the Charleston area the soils are loam, 

 and therefore sand need not be considered. The forests are of two 

 main types, the oak-hickory of the uplands and the red oak-maple 

 of the lowland. At present the forests are declining; in fact, the low- 

 land Bates forest has been converted into a corn field since these 

 studies were made. 



The kinds of animals present in the woods are strikingly different 

 from those of the prairie, as is seen almost at a glance, and as is quite 

 clear by a comparison of the annotated lists of the prairie and forest 

 animals. Prolonged study will probably serve to enhance this differ- 

 ence. A small number are found both in the forest and upon the 

 prairie, but this is the marked exception. Furthermore, the open oak- 

 hickory woods, and the glade-like clearing which furnishes an open 

 habitat within the woods, contained a vast majorit}^ of the animals 

 found common to the prairie and the forest. These animals are to be 

 looked upon as pioneers (or relics) of the prairie, and are not to be 

 confused with the dense forest inhabitants. On a previous page atten- 

 tion was called to the vast importance of the marked discontinuity 

 which exists between the kinds of animals living in the open and in the 

 forest. This distinction is so marked as to merit comparison with the 

 contrast existing between land and fresh-water animals. Possibly 

 on land it ranks second only to this in its fundamental character. When 

 the same kind of animal lives both in the open and in the forest, it 

 often behaves differently in the two situations. It is significant that it 

 required more than a generation for the southern woodland human 

 pioneers of Illinois to change their behavior sufificiently for life on the 

 prairie. Undoubtedly there are many examples of just such changes 

 in behavior. 



I. Forest Soil Community 



The animals of our woodland soils have not been specially investi- 

 gated. Many observations on the life histories of soil invertebrates 

 have been recorded, but not as much is known of them as of prairie 

 soil animals because of the smaller numbers which attack cultivated 

 crops. Undoubtedly the native underground inhabitants of raspber- 

 ries, currants, blackberries, and other wild shrubs have continued to 

 thrive on the cultivated kinds (see Webster '93 for a paper on rasp- 

 berry and blackberry insects), and the same is true of the crab-apples 

 and the haws. Few subterranean animals, however, inhabiting these 

 shrubs and trees of the forest have been studied in detail, with the 

 notable exception of the periodical cicada. It is very probable that a 

 number of animals which lived in the prairie soil continue to do so in 



