Cavernicolous Fauna

Among the cavernicolous species, invertebrates make up the majority of the entire cave fauna. With their extremely restricted distribution, macro-invertebrates are important in determining the health of a cave. This study was conducted to assess the diversity and abundance of macro-invertebrates in two unexplored caves in Wao, Lanao del Sur. Sampling was done through a combination of methods: hand grabbing technique, pitfall traps, visual search, and direct counting method. Ten species belonging to seven orders were recorded in Wao caves. More species were found in Cave 1. Macropathus sp. was the most abundant species comprising half of the species recorded. The huntsman spider, Heteropoda sp.1, was found in the two sampling sites. Moderate diversity was recorded in Cave 1 while Cave 2 had low diversity. Majority of the macro-invertebrate species were found on the cave wall and floor. Guano deposition, temperature, and relative humidity are environmental factors which appear to be significant to the distribution of the macro-invertebrate species in the caves. Disturbances present in the caves also seem to have negatively affected the distribution of species and individuals.

This is the first study which evaluated the influence of cave size and presence of bat guano in ant visitation in Brazilian caves. We provide a list of the ants associated with 27 caves in northeastern Brazil, an area situated in the transition between Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) and Amazon Domain. The study was conducted between January and August 2010. We recorded 24 ant species inserted into 12 genera, 10 tribes, and six subfamilies. The size of the cave and the presence of guano did not influence the richness of ants, and most of the caves had single species. Camponotus atriceps was the species with the larger distribution, being collected in five caves. In addition, we discuss geographic distribution of records and possible ecological roles of ants in cave environments.