1876.] The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. 283 
and lunched by Richardson’s Spring, know that not 4 little dis- 
comfort is experienced in the course of the journey. But for 
the insect-hunter, who must spend hours on his knees in search- 
ing for the less common forms, or lie prone on his face on damp 
sand- banks, — the bed of the ancient stream which tunneled 
out these underground passages, — wearied vertebræ and knee- 
joints, the smoke and drippings of the oil lamps or candles, are 
the drawbacks which must be endured if he would be successful 
in his search for cave life. By two or three weeks’ research in a 
few of the caves of Kentucky, in company with Professor Shaler, 
in charge of the Geological Survey of Kentucky, and with the aid 
of Mr. F. G. Sanborn, we were enabled to more than double the 
number of species of insects known to inhabit Mammoth and ad- 
joining caves, and to discover a new and rich cave-fauna in the 
Carter caves in the eastern part of the State; while in examining 
Weyer’s Cave, in Virginia, not known before to be tenanted by 
insects, some twenty species were discovered by the writer. The 
results of our researches on the spiders of these caves have already 
been given in the NATURALIST (ix. 274, 278), by Mr. J. H. 
Emerton and myself. In the present brief essay I propose to draw 
attention to the amount of variation in the cave beetles, and to 
the early stages of a few species, referring the reader for more 
details to ‘papers hereafter to appear in the memoirs of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Kentucky. It may here be said that the flies 
have been examined by Baron Osten Sacken, the beetles have 
been identified by Dr. J. L. LeConte, while the Amphipod 
crustacea have been identified by Prof. S. I. Smith, and papers 
on the Phalangids and other low arachnids and the mites are in 
Course of preparation by the writer. 
Of the two genera of blind beetles (Anophthalmus and Ade- 
lops) which occur in caves in Kentucky and Southern Europe, 
the smaller form is Adelops. Its appearance and habits are very 
different from those of Anophthalmus. It belongs to the family 
burying beetles, or Silphide, the larger species of which are 
Own to deposit their eggs in dead birds, mice, ete., previously 
burying them beneath the surface of the soil. The Adelops, 
however, is allied to a diminutive member of the family, Catops, 
© species of which live in fungi, carrion, or in ants’ nests. The 
Adelops (Plate IT., Figure 4, enlarged), named Adelops hirtus by 
Bs Tellkampf, its original discoverer, is most abundant under 
loose stones at Richardson’s Spring, where parties have for many 
years taken their lunch, the remains of which form a perennial 
