ELLIOTT ET AL.: THE CAVE FAUNA OF CALIFORNIA 
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galilei in 1966 in Lime Rock Caves, Placer Co., and the New Melones harvestman, Banksula mel- 
ones, in McLean’s Cave, Tuolumne Co., in 1967 (Briggs and Ubick 1981). In 1965, Lee discov¬ 
ered the scorpion, Uroctonites sequoia, in Clough Cave, Tulare Co. (Gertsch and Soleglad 1972) 
and a new species of ice crawler, Grylloblatta , in Lilburn Cave (Lee 1967). In 1971, Briggs dis¬ 
covered four new cave-adapted species in a single visit to Upper Shoshone Cave (Inyo Co.): a cave 
cricket ( Ceuthophilus n. sp.); a schizomid or short-tailed whipscorpion, Hubbardia shoshonensis; 
a cave beetle, Rhadine n. sp.; and the cave harvestman, Texella shoshone (Briggs and Horn 1972; 
Ubick and Briggs 1992). With his student Kevin Horn, Briggs discovered the cave harvestman 
Calicina sierra in 1966 in Masonic Cave, Amador Co. (Briggs and Horn 1967). Together, Briggs, 
Lee, and Horn discovered Calicina cloughensis in Clough Cave (Briggs and Horn 1967). In 1968, 
Briggs discovered a new species of cave harvestman, Texella kokoweef, in Kokoweef Crystal Cave, 
San Bernardino Co., and in 1980, discovered the cave spider, Calileptoneta briggsi, in Indian Val¬ 
ley Creek Caves, Trinity County (Ubick and Briggs 1992; Ledford 2004). Briggs also documented 
the extinction of troglobitic arachnids from Alabaster Cave caused by limestone quarrying (Briggs 
1974a). Darrell Ubick joined the arachnology lab at the California Academy of Sciences in 1972, 
and has discovered and described many new arachnids, primarily spiders and harvestmen, in his 
career. With Briggs, Ubick discovered the harvestman, Banksula tutankhamen, in O’Neil’s Cave 
(also known as King Tut Cave), Calaveras Co. in 1991 (Ubick and Briggs 2002). 
In the mid-1960s, Briggs and his associates continued the study of the Santa Cruz Karst, a bio¬ 
logically important cave region pioneered by Richard E. Graham and CRA in 1959 (Graham 1967, 
1968a-b). They discovered new endemic species of opilionids and other fauna (Briggs 1968,1971; 
Briggs and Ubick 1988; Ubick and Briggs 1989). Since 1988, Briggs and Ubick have urged 
wildlife agencies to preserve these caves (Briggs and Ubick 1988; Briggs 1990; Ubick 2001). 
In 1966, the National Speleological Society held their annual convention at Sequoia National 
Park (Tulare Co.), which renewed speleological interest in this important cave region, especially 
Lilburn Cave, which would later be established as California’s longest cave (Quick 1979). 
In the 1970s, the Mineral King Conservation Task Force worked successfully to prevent estab¬ 
lishment of a ski resort at Mineral King Valley by adding the area to Sequoia National Park (Quick 
1979). This area contains important cave resources. White Chief Cave, Tulare Co., contains a new 
species of spider ( Pimoa ), harvestman ( Taracus ), and an ice crawler (< Grylloblatta ) (Krejca 2006; 
Graening et al. 2011). 
Cave Research Associate and speleologist, Tom Aley, was among the first to explore the caves 
in the Marble Mountains Wilderness Area, Siskiyou Co., in the 1960s. Speleologist Steve Knutson 
established the Klamath Mountains Conservation Task Force in 1974 to organize the exploration 
and protection of caves in the Marble Mountains karst area. In 1979, Craig Rudolph’s group made 
biological collections in these caves and discovered two new spider species, Pimoa mephitis and 
Bathyphantes n. sp., and a cave mite, Foveacheles auricularia (Rudolph et al. 1985; Zacharda and 
Elliott 1985; Hormiga 1994). From the late 1970s through the early 1980s, Donald Hemphill and 
Roy Suggett, two biologists from Pacific Union College, studied the cave fauna of the Marble 
Mountains (Hemphill and Suggett 1978; Suggett 1982). This unique cave region is part of a larger 
region of endemism (the Klamath-Siskiyou coniferous forests ecoregion) that is a biodiversity 
hotspot of North America (Stein et al. 2000). Other endemic species have been found inside the 
caves of the Marble Mountains, such as the ice crawler, Grylloblatta marmoreus, and the sideband 
snails, Monadenia churchi, M. fidelis leonina, and M. marmarotis (Roth 2001; Shear 2011; 
Schoville and Graening 2013). 
In 1974, Steve Shimek and Paul Hara discovered the Sequoia cave isopod, Bowmanasellus 
sequoiae, in Big Spring, part of the Lilburn Cave system (Bowman 1975; Lewis 2008). These 
