Return to Cave Journey Home Page
Who Lives in Caves? How Do Animals Adapt to Living in Caves? How Do Cave Animals Relate to Each Other? What is the Geology of a Cave? How & Why Would You Study a Cave? How Can I Help Conserve Caves?
Go to the Community Room
Go to What Are Cave Communities
Go to How Do Cave Communites Work?
Go to What
Go to What is an Example of Competition?
Go to What is Species Diversity?
Go to How Does the Nutrient Cycle Work?
What is the Species Diversity of a Cave?
Picture of a Tegenaria
Click on Picture for Larger Image
You may think that there is not much in caves but a lot of crickets and spiders. Or, that maybe there are a lot of bats and not much insect or other life? Caves are inhabited by lots of different kinds of creatures. From 973 species of cave organisms in the U.S. , Dr Cave Facts tells us that from reading more of the paper by Christman and Culver that there are:

210 genera
96 families
38 orders

of the following species:

Turbellaria (free-living flatworms)

 

Oligochaeta (worms to you, in particular, segmented worms such as earthworms)

Picture of an Earthworm
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Mollusca (slugs, snails, etc.)

Picture of a Snail
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Arachnida (spiders, mites, and ticks)

Picture of a Mite
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Crustacea (These guys live in the water and have gills to breathe with. Shrimp are an example.)

 

Chilopoda (Centipedes)

 

Diplopoda (Millipedes)

Picture of a Millipede
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Insecta (all those glorious creepy crawlies such as cockroaches, crickets, and beetles)

Picture of a Rhadine Beetle
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Ostreichthyes (fish with bones)

Picture of Cave Fish (Mexico)
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Amphibia (frogs, toads, and salamanders)

Picture of a Toad
Click on the Picture for Larger Image

Are you impressed? Or, are you wondering why scientists use all those many-syllable words to name things.

Click on the Link(s) Below to Learn (About)...

Species Richness
------
Species Diversity and Endemism

OR

Click Here to Learn More About the Differences Between Cave and Surface Food Webs
------
Click Here for an Example of Competition
------
Click Here to Find Out About Species Diversity
------
Click Here to Learn About Nutrient Cycling