Caves and their Faunas in Florida and South Georgia 57 



OcALA Fauna 



Species List — **Caecidotea hobbsi, Remasellus parvus, **Crangonyx 

 grandimanus, **C. hobbsi, "^Palaemonetes cummingi, *Procambarus 

 erythrops, *P. franzi, *P. leitheuseri, *P. lucifugus lucifugus, *P. lucifugus 

 alachua, *P. lucifugus X alachua, *P.pallidus, *Troglocambarus maclanei. 

 The Ocala Fauna occurs in mature and riverine karst areas associated 

 with Ocala Group limestones (Floridan aquifer), from the Suwannee 

 River drainage, southwest through Alachua, Marion, Levy, Citrus, Hernando, 

 Pasco, and possibly Pinellas counties. Within this region, the fauna 

 appears fragmented into a series of six geographically distinct assemblages, 

 each characterized by endemic taxa (Table 1). The factor that consolidates 

 the Ocala Fauna is the presence of the crayfishes Procambarus lucifugus 

 (and allied species) and Troglocambarus maclanei which are represented 

 in every Ocala assemblage. 



The Upper Suwannee appears to be the most distinctive of the 

 six assemblages. The Upper Suwannee incorporates the riverine karsts 

 along the upper Suwannee, (northern) Withlacoochee, and lower Santa 

 Fe rivers. It also spills over through the High Springs Gap onto the 

 Western Valley (=Newberry Karst Plain) between the Cody Scarp and 

 the (northern) Brooksville Ridge in western Alachua and northeastern 

 Levy counties (see Fig. 4 and discussions by White 1970, Hoenstine 

 and Lane 1991). In the Western Valley, the assemblage tracks what 

 appears to be an ancient stream channel that may have been a former 

 surface tributary of the Santa Fe River. The Lower Suwannee Assem- 

 blage is centered in a small karst area between the town of Bell in 

 Gilchrist County and the Chiefland-Manatee Springs area in Levy 

 County, west of Bell Ridge and the Waccasassa Flats. The Upper and 

 Lower Suwannee assemblages are each distinctive: Palaemonetes 

 cummingi, Procambarus lucifugus alachua, and P. pallidus in the 

 Upper Suwannee; Procambarus lucifugus X alachua, in the Lower 

 Suwannee. The Upper Suwannee includes populations of the isopod 

 Remasellus parvus that also occurs in the Wakulla area south of Talla- 

 hassee, but yet unrecorded from the Lower Suwannee. The Upper 

 Suwannee Assemblage (notably Procambarus pallidus) ranges down 

 the Suwannee River as far south as Rock Bluff Spring, but apparently 

 does not occur in the Bell karst. For unknown reasons there are 

 no troglobites known from limestone areas on the other bank of the 

 Suwannee River in Dixie County. Barriers to dispersal, if any exist, 

 that separate the Upper and Lower Suwannee assemblages have not 

 been identified. 



The Orange Lake and Marion assemblages lie in karsts of Marion 

 County. The Orange Lake Assemblage, which includes the endemic 



