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PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 64, Supplement 1 
Appendix 3 
Glossary 
Accidental: An animal that does not normally live in caves; “incidental” means nearly the same. 
Aquatic: Living in water. Aquatic cave animals include amphipods, isopods, crayfish, planarians, fishes, and 
blind salamanders. See also Terrestrial and Marine. 
Arthropods: Animals with jointed legs and hard exoskeletons. The group includes insects, cmstaceans, spi¬ 
ders, millipedes, and several other types of animals commonly found in caves. 
Aquifer: A geologic formation from which significant amounts of groundwater can be pumped for domestic, 
municipal, or agricultural uses. Many small organisms are adapted to groundwater. 
Biospeleoiogy (speleobiology): Cave biology, the scientific study of cave animal life, or the biology of caves, 
karst, and groundwater. A biologist who specializes in this study is called a cave biologist, biospeleolo¬ 
gist, or speleobiologist. 
Breakdown: A heap of rock filling all or part of a cave passage after the collapse of part of the walls or ceil¬ 
ing. The term usually refers only to large accumulations of rock. 
Carbonate: Rocks composed of limestone, marble, dolomite or other types containing the carbonate group, 
C0 3 . 
Carnivore: A member of the Order Carnivora, e.g., bears, wolves, cats, etc., or an animal that lives by eating 
the flesh of other animals (many groups). See also Herbivore; Insectivore; Omnivore. 
Cave: Any natural cavity or series of cavities beneath the surface of the earth. Such cavities are usually classed 
as caves only if they are large enough to permit entrance by humans. The term is generally synonymous 
with cavern and is commonly applied also to wind- or water-eroded rock cavities, sea caves, lava tubes, 
crevice and talus caves, soil pipes, and other natural features. In a narrow context cave may apply only 
to karst caves, formed by the dissolution of rock. In a broad context all holes, cracks, crevices, and inter¬ 
stitial spaces are caves to tiny subterranean creatures. 
Cave deposit: An accumulation of material other than speleothems, such as charcoal, fossils, clay, silt, grav¬ 
el, and other flood-borne debris. 
Caver: A person who explores caves as a hobby or for recreation. See also Speleologist and Spelunker. 
Cavernicole: A species that is either a facultative cave form, such as a troglophile or stygophile, or an obli¬ 
gate cave form, such as a troglobite or stygobite. 
Cave system: All the cavities and underground passages in a given area, which are now or at one time were 
interconnected. 
Community: All the organisms that live in a particular habitat and are bound together by food chains and 
other interrelations. 
Constant-temperature zone: The area of a cave where air temperature is nearly constant throughout the year 
and approximates the average annual temperature aboveground. See also Zonation. 
Consumer: Any living thing that is unable to manufacture food from nonliving substances, but depends 
instead on the energy stored in other living things. See also Carnivore; Decomposers; Food chain; Her¬ 
bivore; Omnivore; Producers. 
Crustaceans: The large class of animals that includes lobsters, crayfish, amphipods, isopods, and many sim¬ 
ilar forms. Crustaceans typically live in water and have many jointed appendages, segmented bodies, and 
hard exoskeletons. 
Decomposers: Living things, chiefly bacteria and fungi, that live by extracting energy from the decaying tis¬ 
sues of dead plants and animals. In the process, they also release simple chemical compounds stored in 
the dead bodies and make them available once again for use by green plants. 
Detritivore: An animal that feeds on dead and decomposing organic matter, e.g., millipedes. 
Ecology: The scientific study of the relationships of living things to one another and to their environment. A 
scientist who studies these relationships is an ecologist. 
Edaphobite, endogean: A soil-dwelling animal, sometimes found in caves. Endogean environments are the 
parts of caves that are in communication with surface soils through cracks, groundwater, and roots. It is 
sometimes difficult to say if small insects, symphylans, millipedes, mites, and the like, are endogeans or 
true troglobites. 
