The New 27 Cave Bugs

Last Sunday, I read it in the newspaper. Today, we can see here 6 of those 27 bugs.

From: Sequoia National Park, California.
"spiders, centipedes, scorpion-like creatures and other animals have been discovered in the dark, damp caves beneath two national parks in the Sierra Nevada... included a relative of the pill bug so translucent that its internal organs are visible, particularly its long, bright yellow liver. There was also a daddy long legs with jaws bigger than its body, and a tiny fluorescent orange spider."

Taken from: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/water/images/bone_cave_harvestman.jpg


A spider-like creature called a harvestman.

"Not only are these animals new to science, but they're adapted to very specific environments -- some of them, to a single room in one cave," said Joel Despain, a cave specialist who helped explore 30 of the 238 known caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks."

"While it is extremely rare to find new mammal or bird species on the surface, caves still hold an abundance of secrets. Like the deep sea, they are often difficult to reach and seldom explored."

Next, a cave woodlouse, a millipede, a soldiers dipluran (eyeless silverfish) and a spider, respectively (from the same study):



Taken from: http://www.livescience.com/images/060118_millipede_02.jpg

Taken from: http://news.softpedia.com/images//news2/27-de-specii-noi-in-pesterile-din-Statele-Unite-2.jpg

However, y'all see at your own risk the ugly and fat "pseudo scorpion", from the same study (smile.)


Taken from: http://www.livescience.com/images/060118_soldiers_dipluran_02.jpg


Taken from: http://news.softpedia.com/images//news2/27-de-specii-noi-in-pesterile-din-Statele-Unite-3.jpg

The species have yet to be named, described scientifically... "We don't know how long they live, what kind of habitat they prefer..." Krejca said.

Well, of course not the beach! Not even sunny surfaces! Those critters obviously prefer the environments of the caves in which they were found! ... However, I wonder, how many of them are just compatible VARIETIES of their related counterparts that we already know over the surface?

Add this list and images to the previously presented Bioengineering and The Discovery of New Organisms.

Other link: Scientist highlights diversity of cave life, by Leon Alligood.

See other cave-dwellers at:


http://fdocc.blogspot.com/2006/02/adaptations-of-cave-fish.html


http://fdocc.blogspot.com/2006/01/laupala-cricket-variation.html

http://fdocc.blogspot.com/2006/02/cave-dwellers-known-since-1966.html

http://fdocc.blogspot.com/2006/02/more-adaptive-comparisons-of-cave.html