10 
John R. Holsinger and David C. Culver 
Holsinger (1977) from General Davis Cave in Greenbrier County, 
W.Va., and G. palleucus McCrady {sensu lato ) from several caves and a 
temporary spring in Knox, McMinn, and Roane counties, Tenn. (see 
Brandon 1965, Simmons 1975). 
Troglobitic fishes of the family Amblyopsidae occur on the western 
margin of the Cumberland Plateau and in the Interior Low Plateaus 
and Ozark Plateaus, but are absent from the Appalachian Valley and 
eastern side of the Appalachian Plateau except for the documented 
occurrence of Typhlichthys subterraneus Girard in Lookout and Wills 
valleys in northeastern Alabama and northwestern Georgia (see Cooper 
and lies 1971). 
METHODS 
Field Work 
During the course of our investigation (1961-1980), 450 caves in 
Virginia and 53 in eastern Tennessee were explored for biological 
specimens. In addition, biological data were obtained from the literature 
or from other biologists on approximately 38 caves in Virginia and 9 in 
Tennessee not visited by us during the field work. As of 1980, these 
totals represented approximately 21% of the recorded caves in the study 
area. Caves were visited in all counties in the study area except Clarke 
County in northwestern Virginia, which has only four insignificant 
caves reported (see Douglas 1964, Holsinger 1975). Virtually all caves 
considered “large” (see Holsinger 1975) were checked at least once, and 
some of the most complex ones, especially in the Clinch and Powell 
valleys, were visited on several separate occasions. In addition to the 
field work in Virginia and east Tennessee, biological data were collected 
concurrently from 152 caves in adjacent West Virginia, but the results of 
this part of the study have been published separately (see Holsinger et 
al. 1976). 
In most of the caves investigated, sampling for specimens was done 
in all potential habitats, including banks of damp clay and silt, decom- 
posing organic detritus (e.g., wood, leaves, guano), damp flowstone and 
dripstone, pools fed by drips and seeps, and streams (see Fig. 5). With 
the exception of specimens obtained from pit-fall traps used for a short 
time in four Lee County caves during the summer of 1975, in a special 
study by T. C. Kane, and the occasional use of cheese and shrimp baits 
on an experimental basis, trapping, baiting, Berlese, and phreatic pump- 
ing techniques were not employed in collecting. A majority of records 
in this report are based on collections made directly from the substrate, 
aided only by small brushes or syringes. 
Collecting efforts were focused principally on troglobites and 
troglophiles, but selective collections were also made of trogloxenes and 
accidentals in order to document their occurrence. Non-cave habitats, 
