April it, 1872] 



NATURE 



447 



lected several species belonging to the genera JMonas, 

 Chilomoiias, and (?) Chilodon. 



Representatives of all the grand divisions of the in- 

 sects and crustaceans have been found in this cave, and if 

 no worms have yet been detected one or more species 

 would undoubtedly reward a thorough search. 



We will enumerate what have been found, beginning 

 with the higher forms. No llymenoptera (bees, wasps, 

 and ants) or Lepidoptera (moths) are yet recorded as 

 being peculiar to caves. The Diptera (flies) are repre- 

 sented by two species, one of Anthomyia (Fig. i), or a 

 closely allied genus, and the second belonging to the 

 singular and interesting genus Phora (Fig. 2.) The species 

 of Anthomyia usually frequent flowers ; the larv.-c live in 

 decaying vegetable matter, or, like the onion fly, attack 

 healthy roots. It would be presumptuous in the writer 

 to attempt to describe these forms without collections of 

 species from the neighbourhood of the cave, for though 

 like all the rest of the insects they were found three or 

 four miles from the mouth, yet they may be found to 

 occur outside of its limits, as the eyes and the colours of 

 the body are as bright as in other species. 



Among the beetles, two species were found by Mr. 



Cooke. The Auopthalmus Tellkampfii of Erichson, a 

 Carabid (Fig. 3), and Adelops hirttis Tellkampf (Fig. 4), 

 aUied to Catops, one of the Silphidx or burying beetle 

 family. The Anopthalmus is of a pale reddish horn 

 colour, and is totally blind ;* in the Adelops, which is 

 greyish brown, there are two pale spots, which may be ru- 

 dimentary eyes, as Tellkampf and l'>ichson suggest. No 

 Hemiptera (bugs) have yet Iseen found cither in the caves 

 of this country or Europe. Two wingless grasshoppers 

 (sometimes called crickets) like the common species 

 found under stones {Ceuthophilus macidata Harris), have 

 been found in our caves ; one is the Hadcncccus subtcr- 

 raiiciis (Fig. 5 nat. size) described by Mr. Scudder, and 

 very abundant in Mammoth Cave. The other species is 

 //. s/y^i'a Scudder, from Hickman's cave, near Hickman's 

 landing, upon the Kentucky river. It is closely allied to the 

 Mammoth Cave species. According to Mr. Scudder the 

 specimens of //. sfygiu were found by Mr. A. Hyatt " in 

 the remotest corner of Hickman's Cave, in a sort of a 

 hollow in the rock, not particularly moist, but having 

 only a sort of cave dampness. They were found a 

 few hundred feet from the sunlight, living exclusively 

 upon the walls." Even the remotest part of that 



ihocheir armata. 



cave is not so gloomy but that some sunlight pene- 

 trates it. 



The other species is found both in Mammoth Cave, and 

 in the adjoining White's Cave. It is found throughout 

 the cave, and most commonly (to quote Mr. Scudder) 

 "about 'Martha's Vineyard" and in the neighbourhood 

 of ' Richardson's Spring ' where they were discovered 

 jumping about with the greatest alacrity upon the walls, 

 where only they are found, and even when disturbed, 

 clinging to the ceiling, upon which they walked easily ; 

 they would leap away from approaching footsteps, but 

 stop at a cessation of the noise, turning about and sway- 

 ing their long antenna? in a most ludicrous manner, in the 

 direction whence the disturbance had proceeded ; the 

 least noise would increase their tremulousness, while they 

 were unconcerned at distant motions, unaccompanied b. 

 sound, even though producmg a sensible current of air ; 

 neither did the light of the lamp appear to disturb them ; 

 their eyes, and those of the succeeding species {H. slygta), 

 are perfectly formed throughout, and they could appa- 

 rently see with ease, for they jump away from the slowly 

 approaching hand, so as to necessitate rapidity of motion 

 in seizing them." 



The Thysanurous Neuroptera are represented by a 



species of Machilis, allied to our common Machilis 

 variabilis Say, common in Kentucky and the middle and 

 southern States. So far as Tellkampf's figure indicates, it 

 is the same species apparently, as I have received nume- 

 rous specimens of this widely distributed form from 

 Knoxville, Tennessee, collected by Dr. Josiah Curiis. 

 It was regarded as a crustacean by Tellkampf, and de- 

 scribed under the name of Triiira cavernicola.f He mis- 

 took the labial and maxillary palpi for feet, and regarded 

 the nine pairs of abdominal spines as feet. The allied 

 species, M. variabilis Say, is figured in vol. v. pi. i, figs. 

 8. g. 



* In Erhardt's cave, Montgomery Co , Virginia, Pro*". Cope found " four 

 or five specimens of a new Anopthalmus the A. push of Horn, at a dis- 

 tance of not more than three hundred feet from its mouch. Th-^ species is 

 small, and all were found together under a stone. 'I'fieir m ivcmenls were 

 slow, in considerable contrast to the activity of ordin.^ry Carabida;." Proc. 

 Aiiier. Phil. Soc. 1869, p. 178. 



t Prof Agissiz, in his brief notice of the Mammoth Cave animals, does 

 not criticise Telllcampfs reference of this animal to the c ustacea ; and so 

 eminent an authority upon the aiticulates as Schitidie remark-, while 

 *' Dr. Tellkampf s account affords us no means of formmg any conclu ion as 

 10 its proximate relations," thar, however, it " appears to bel ng to the order 

 of Amphip^da, and to have a mo-^t remarkable structure" Tellkampfs 

 fig'ire of Machilis is entirely wrong in representing the Ubial and maxillary 

 palpi as ending in claws, thus giving the creature a crustacean aspei-t, and, 

 indeed, he describes them as true feet I 



