Trip Date: 2024-06-01
Hangmans Drop
Visited the boulder choke entrance down to the first level of the Hangmans Drop. Did not go down to the next level.
As usual, this cave lived up to it's alternative name of Deep Freeze. The air coming out of the cave was cold. There were bristletails, crane flies, spiders and cave crickets in the first part of the boulder choke.
The centipede was under a rock on the floor of the Hangmans' Drop chamber. I found 3 centipedes, but the other two very small centipedes. < 10mm.
Bats Cave
Visited the upper part of the entrance chamber. There were bristletails, crane flies, spiders and cave crickets in the first part of the entrance. Although parts of this chamber do get direct sunlight during parts of the day, the animals I found were in the twilight/low light areas within the chamber.
Things to look out for next time:
Inukshuk Cave
Visited the top two levels of the cave.
In the boulder choke entrance. Mostly on vertical surfaces or on the ceiling.
All sizes in the entrance boulder choke down to first open chamber.
Found under a rock in the large open chamber below the tree.
Ant. Articles: 20, 15 Leg pairs
Not as many as I expected
This collembola was running around on a wet, dead tree trunk that had fallen into the cave. It leapt to avoid my light, and disappeared over the edge of a 10m deep canyon, hence only one out of focus picture.
These crane flies are quite common in the entrance/twilight zone of Bats Cave.
Fewer than I expected.
I saw 2 of these very small harvestmen. I lost both before being able to get better pictures. Reminder to look harder next time. Body length parameter is a guess.
Bristletails were mostly on vertical walls or 'ceiling' of boulders.
The web was hanging close to the ceiling.
I saw three of these beetles. All very actively running around in and on the soil in the darkest part of the twilight zone. There is a lot of organic material on the floor of this section of the cave.
Small keeled millipede. Probably juvenile. In the spoil/humus on the cave floor.
There were a lot of these worms in the soil and under rocks on the floor of the cave.
Found walking on top of the wet soil/humus in the transition/dark zone of the cave.
Common throughout the twilight and transition dark zone of the cave.
When these spiders are disturbed, they usually vibrate in place in their webs. which make focus a problem. This one dashed across its web. I thought is was trying to evade the photographer, but when I looked at the pictures, I see it had caught lunch,
The web was under a boulder pile. 6mm body length is an estimate.
There were a few of these in and on the soil/decaying plant matter in the cave.
This slug was really outside of the cave, but within the drip line of the entrance, so has been put in the entrance zone. It was on the ceiling of the rock that surrounds the entrance to the cave, and its presence probably has little to do with the cave, and more to do with the humid atmosphere of the surroundings.
Found on the ceiling/wall of the cave, not far from the entrance.
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