Caves and their Faunas in Florida and South Georgia 



maclanei in the original Gum Tree Cavern collection that escaped the 

 attention of Faxon and other workers and remained unnoticed until 

 Martha R. Cooper rediscovered the specimen mixed with the others 

 over 80 years later! Webber and Swingle also provided additional 

 specimens of white crayfishes to the U.S. National Museum of Natural 

 History, but there is some question as to their origins. The collection 

 data stated only that they were received from Swingle and Webber 

 from Eustis, Lake County, Florida, in November 1897. It is not known 

 whether the specimens originated in the Eustis area or were collected 

 elsewhere and shipped from Eustis. Hobbs (1940^) considered these 

 specimens similar to his Cambarus lucifugus from Gum Cave but 

 indicated that they possessed certain unique features. This led him to 

 suggest that they probably represented an unidentified subspecies of 

 lucifugus. As far as we are aware, there have been no further collections 

 of this unique crayfish. 



Hobbs Period (1935-1946) — Little happened in Florida speleology 

 between 1897 and 1935. In 1931, Horton H. Hobbs, Jr. began his long 

 and productive scientific career as an undergraduate student at the 

 University of Florida (Hobbs 1986). Upon graduation in 1935, he 

 enrolled in the master's program at Florida where he began his studies 

 on Florida crayfishes under the direction of Dr. J. Speed Rogers. 

 Hobbs was encouraged first to survey the crayfishes of Alachua County 

 for his master's degree (Hobbs 1936), before launching into his definitive 

 survey of the state's crayfish fauna for his Ph.D., which he completed 

 in May 1940 (Hobbs 1940/?). As part of this scholastic program, he 

 became one of the leaders in the natural history revolution that occurred 

 at the University of Florida during the pre-World War II years. Hobbs 

 was the third person to earn a Ph.D in biology from this institution, 

 following Archie Carr and H. K. Wallace. 



In March 1935, Hobbs found his first cave crayfishes 

 (Procambarus pallidus) in "... a small area of subterranean water 

 exposed in the bottom of a cavelike lime sink in the southern part of 

 Columbia County" (=Riverbed Cave) (Hobbs 1940^, 1986). This site 

 was located in an abandoned stream valley at the base of the railroad 

 embankment along U.S. Highway 27 west of High Springs. We have 

 searched the immediate area around the railroad embankment but were 

 not successful in relocating an exposure of subterranean water at this 

 site; however, we have found troglobites in other sinks north of the 

 embankment further up the valley. 



Between 1936 and 1942, Hobbs collected additional material of 

 Procambarus lucifugus lucifugus at Sweet Gum Cave in Citrus County, 



