Caves and their Faunas in Florida and South Georgia 51 



bat species recorded from Florida that are dependent on caves; the 

 latter two are reported only rarely and probably are not regular members 

 of Florida and south Georgia's cave faunas. 



OBLIGATE CAVE FAUNAS AND KARST REGIONS 



The biogeography of Florida and south Georgia's troglobites have 

 been discussed by Hobbs (1958), Caine (1974), Relyea et al. (1976), 

 Hobbs et al. 1977, Means (1977), Franz and Lee (1982), and others. 

 Each new discovery invites interpretative changes. The new distri- 

 butional records accumulated since 1982 necessitate further 

 comments concerning distributional patterns exhibited by this unique 

 group of species. 



Six distinct cave faunas are suggested in the Florida and south 

 Georgia region (Fig. 2). Other unidentified faunas may emerge when 

 limestone areas outside of the geographic ranges of the six are better 

 surveyed. Each of the six faunas occupies a specific geographic range, 

 has precinctive taxa, and is characterized by specific geologic and 

 hydrologic characteristics. The two largest faunas (Ocala, St. Johns) 

 are broken into smaller assemblages (Table 1, Fig. 3). An assemblage 

 is defined as an isolated segment of a fauna that possesses distinctive 

 taxa. 



Taxa are listed for each fauna in the accompanying faunal 

 descriptions; taxa associated with a specific assemblage are shown on 

 Table 1. In these faunal descriptions, one asterisk (*) preceding a 

 name indicates a precinctive species; double asterisks (**) identify 

 taxa that occur in three or more faunas. 



EcoNFiNA Creek Fauna 



Species List — *Dasyscias franzi, *Caecidotea sp.l. The fauna is 

 known from a single cave in the Econfina Creek basin. The karst area 

 associated with the Econfina Creek Fauna is located in southern Washing- 

 ton and northern Bay counties. It remains largely unexplored, although 

 there are numerous spring outlets along the mid-portions of Econfina 

 Creek where elements of the fauna may eventually be found. Additional 

 spring water also emerges from the Floridan aquifer directly into 

 Econfina Creek through fissures in the stream bed and from the base 

 of bluffs at points where the stream breaches overlying terrace deposits 

 (Vernon 1942, Musgrove et al. 1965). Econfina Blue Springs are composed 

 of several spring outlets along the edge of a low bluff that borders a 

 large spring pool on the east side of Econfina Creek. Combined flow 

 rates for these springs ranged from 32-51 cu. ft/sec. (1941-1972) (Rosenau 

 et al. 1977). The springs are developed at the contact between an upper 



