Trip Date: 2023-11-05
The objective of this trip was to see what lives in Entrance Zone of Egyptian Cave
Egyptian Cave is large, open chamber. The whole cave is mostly in the twilight zone, with the possible exception of a low, sandy passage that heads towards Blue Disa Cave. The passage was not investigated on this trip.
Water was dripping from the ceiling at the back of the main chamber, and there was a shallow pool, filled by the drops falling from the ceiling. I did not see any life in the pool. The cave is very polluted. Broken glass, plastic and old zinc carbon batteries can be found throughout the cave.
The whole cave is closely coupled to the surface environment, and a lot of organic material falls into the entrance from the trees that surround the entrance.
I expected to find Paramelita and planaria in the pool, but did not. This may be because it is fed by drips from the ceiling, rather than water flowing into the pool. This may be different in winter.
I did find:
This specimen looked like a young Izithunzi capense. It was much smaller than the usual Izithunzi I see, and the markings on the abdomen were less distinct.
This snail was in the leaf litter near the cave entrance and probably came from outside the cave.
Small spider. Body and head together approx 3mm long.
Small harvestman. Body approx. 2mm long. Legs and parts of the body appear transparent in some pictures.
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