284 The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. [May, 
pasturage for these beetles. It is probable also that the dead 
bodies of bats, crickets, and smaller insects sustain them in other 
caverns and in different portions of Mammoth Cave. 
The other blind beetles, various species of Anophthalmus, prey 
` without doubt chiefly on living objects, perhaps the young of 
their own kind or of the Adelops, as they belong to the family 
of carnivorous beetles, the Carabide. They are found running 
over damp sand-banks, sometimes hiding in little pits under 
stones. i 
Six species of Anophthalmus are known, of which A. Tell- 
kampfii is the largest and most abundant, 
occurring in Mammoth and the neighboring 
caves. Next to this, Anophthalmus Mene- 
triesi of Motschultzy is most common. In 
the grottoes near Mammoth Cave, Cave City 
Cave, and Walnut Hill Spring Cave, near 
Glasgow Junction, Mr. Sanborn found An- 
ophthalmus pubescens Horn. In Wyan- 
dotte Cave A. tenuis Horn and A. eremita 
Horn are the only blind beetles found, and 
the former has been found in Bradford Cave, 
) Indiana, by Dr. John Sloan and myself. 
The larger number of species occur in the 
Mammoth Cave region, while in the Carter 
caves of Eastern Kentucky only one species 
(Fıs 17.) ANOPHTHALMUS. (A, pusio Horn) occurred, which was orig- 
inally discovered by Professor Cope in Erharts Cave, Montgom- 
ery Co., Virginia. No Adelops has occurred away from the 
Mammoth Cave region. a 
The subject of the degree of variation in these cave beetles is 
an interesting one. So uniform are their physical surroundings: 
the perpetual darkness, even annual temperature, varying bat 
very slightly winter or summer, unless in the smaller caverns; 
the dryness of the air, though after the spring freshets the cav® 
are doubtless damper than at other seasons of the year (this 
may not be the case with Wyandotte Cave, which is remarkably 
dry compared with Mammoth Cave) ; all these conditions must 
certainly tend to produce much persistence of form and size mM 
these beetles. 
I will give a few notes regarding differences in size, tO show 
how much variation does occur. In twenty-two specimens of 
Anophthalmus Tellkampfii (0.30 inch in length) from Salt Cave 
ET E SARS So SAR eae AN Mes Bad Rn en hs a Ne S OSEA 
