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number of species obtained in the latter suggests that it 
is the richer in life. This I suspect will prove to be the 
case, as it is situated in a fertile region. Some of the 
animals were also procured from caves immediately ad- 
joining, which are no doubt connected with the principal 
one. 
Of the out-door fauna which find shelter in the cave, 
bats are, of course, most numerous. They are probably 
followed into their retreat by the eagle and other large 
owls. The floors of some of the chambers were covered 
to a considerable depth by the castings of these birds, 
which consisted of bats’ fur and bones. It would be 
worth while to determine whether any of the owls winter 
there. 
LIST OF LIVING SPECIES IN THE TWO CAVES. 
WYANDOTTE. Mammoru. 
Vertebrata. 
Amblyopsis speleus DeKay. 
Typhlichthys subterraneus Girard. 
Arachnida. 
Acanthocheir armata Tellk. 
Phrixis longipes Cope. 
Anthrobia monmouthia Tellk, 
Crustacea. 
Orconectes pellucidus Tellk. 
Czecidotea stygia Pack. 
Stygobromus vitreus Cope. 
Insecta. 
Anophthalmus Menetriesii Motsch. 
Anophthalmus Tellkampfii Erichs. 
Adelops hirtus Tellk, 
Amblyopsis spelzcus DeKay. 
Erebomaster flavescens Cope. 
Anthrobia. 
Orconectes inermis Cope. 
Czcidotea microcephala Cope. 
Cauloxenus stygius Cope. 
Anophthalmus tenuis Horn. 
Anophthalmus eremita Horn. 
Quedius spelzeus Horn. 
Lesteva sp. nov. 
Raphidophora. 
orn. 
Raphidophora subterranea Scudd. 
Phora. hora. 
Anthomyia. Anthomyia. 
Machilis, Machilis. 
Campodea sp. Campodea Cookei Pack. 
Tipulid 
Myriopoda. 
Pirostrephon cavernarum Cope. Scoterpes Copei (Pack.). 
The blind fish of the Wyandotte Cave is the same as 
that of the Mammoth, the Amdlyopsis speleus DeKay. 
Tt must have considerable subterranean distribution, as it 
has undoubtedly been drawn up from four wells in the 
neighbourhood of the cave. Indeed, it was from one of 
these, which derives its water from the cave, that we pro- 
cured our specimens. We descended a well to the water, 
some twenty feet below the surface, and found it to com- 
municate by a side opening with a long low channel, 
through which flowed a lively stream of very cold water. 
Wading up the current in a stooping posture, we soon 
reached a shallow expansion or pool. Here a blind craw- 
fish was detected crawling round the margin, and was 
promptly consigned to the alcohol bottle. A little farther 
beyond, deeper water was reached, and an erect position 
became possible. We drew the seine in a narrow channel, 
and after an exploration under the bordering rocks, 
secured two fishes. A second haul secured another. 
Another was seen, but we failed to catch it, and on 
emerging from the cave I had a fifth securely in my hand, 
as I thought, but found my fingers too numb to prevent 
its freeing itself by its active struggles. 
If these Amblyopses be not alarmed, they come to the 
surface to feed, and swim in full sight like white aquatic 
ghosts. They are then easily taken by the hand or net, 
if perfect silence is preserved, for they are unconscious of 
the presence of an enemy except through the medium of 
hearing. This sense is, however, evidently very acute, for 
at any noise they turn suddenly downward and hide be- 
neath stones, &c., on the bottom. They must take much 
of their food near the surface, as the life of the depths is 
apparently very sparse. This habit is rendered easy by 
the structure of the fish, for the mouth is directed partly 
upwards, and the head is yery flat above, thus allowing 
the mouth to be at the surface. It thus takes food with 
less difficulty than other surface feeders, as the perch, &c., 
where the mouth is terminal or even inferior ; for these 
require a definite effort to elevate the mouth to the object 
floating on the surface. This could rarely be done with 
accuracy by a fish with defective or atrophied visual 
organs. It is therefore probable that fishes of the type of 
WATURE 9° oe 
' 
r 
[Wou. 7, 1872 
the Cyprinodontide, the nearest allies of the Hypscide, 
and such Aypswide as the eyed Chologaster, would possess 
in the position of the mouth a slight advantage in the - 
struggle for existence. “ 
The blind crawfish above mentioned is specifically dis- 
tinct from that of the Mammoth Cave, though nearly 
related to it. I callit Orconectes gnermis, separating it gene- 
rically from Caméarus, or the true crawfishes, on account 
of the absence of visual organs. The genus Orconectes, 
then, is established to include the blind crawfishes of the 
Mammoth and Wyandotte Caves. 
Dr. Packard has described an interesting genus of Iso- 
poda allied to the marine form /do/ea, which Mr. Cooke 
discovered in a pool in the Mammoth Cave. He called 
it Cecidotea. 1 obtained a second species in a cave ad- 
joining the Wyandotte which differs in several important 
respects. I call it Cecidotea microcephala. Both 
species are blind. The new species is pure white. It was 
quite active, and the females carried a pair of egg-pouches- 
full of eggs. The situation in which we found it was” 
peculiar. It was only seen in and near an empty log 
trough used to collect water from a spring dripping from 
the roof of one of the chambers. 1 
The Lernazan, Canloxenus stygius Cope, is a remarkable 
creature. It is a parasite on the blind fish, precisely as 
numerous species near of kin attach themselves to various 
species of marine fishes. The Wyandotte species is not 
so very unlike some of these. It is attached by a pair of 
altered fore-limbs, which are plunged into the skin of the 
host, and held securely in that position by the barbed or 
recurved claws, No parasitic male was observed in the 
neighbourhood of the female, and it is probable that, as 
in the other Lerneopfodide, he is a free swimmer, and 
extremely small. The difficulty of finding his mate on an 
active host-fish must be augmented by the total darkness 
of his abode, and many must be isolated owing to the 
infrequent and irregular occurrence of the fish, to say 
nothing of the scarceness of its own species. on 
The allied genera, Achtheres and Lern@opoda, present 
very distinct distributions, the former being fresh wate 
and the latter marine. Zern@opoda is found in the most 
varied types of fishes and in several seas ; Achtheres has 
been observed on perch from Asia and Europe, and on a 
South American Pimelodus. It is to the latter that Cau- 
Zoxenus is most nearly allied, and from such a. form we 
may, perhaps, trace its descent ; modification being con- 
sequent on its wandering into subterranean streams. The 
character which distinguishes it from its allies is one 
which especially adapts it for maintaining a firm hold 
on its host, z.e., the fusion of its jaw-arms into a single 
stem. ‘ f 
Whether the present species shared with the AmébZyopsis 
its history and changes, or whether it seized upon the fish 
as a host at some subsequent period, is a curious specula- 
tion. Its location at the mouth of the fish could scarcely 
be maintained on a species having sight ; for if the host © 
did not remove it, other individuals would be apt to. ; 
I may here allude to another blind Crustacean which — 
took in the Mammoth Cave, and which has been already 
mentioned in the Annals and Magazine of Natural His- 
tory asa Gammaroid. Mr, Cooke and myself descended 
a hole, and found, a short distance along a gallery, a clear 
spring, covering, perhaps, an area ten feet across. Here 
Mr. Cooke was so fortunate as to procure the Cecidotea 
siygia, while I took the species just mentioned, and which 
Iname Stygobromus vitreus, ‘The genus is new, and re- 
presents in a measure the Wzphargus of Schiédte found in 
the caves of Southern Europe. This genus has several — 
species in fresh waters, which are of small size, and swim 
actively, turning on one side or the other. un te 
Of Insects I took four species of beetles, all new to 
science ; two of them of a blind carnivorous genus” 
Anopthhalmus, and two Staphylinida, known by their — 
very short wing-cases and long, flexible abdomen, Dr. 
George H, Horn has kindly determined them for me. 
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