Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-01-04
1T DIES IN DAYLIGHT.
But Cavern Beetles Are Able to
Move About in Pitch
Dark Homes.

Inc cavern Deetle was hrSt dlScOV-
cred 70 years ago in an Austrian cave,
the grotto of Adelsberg. One speci-
men only was caught and, though it's
| dlscoverer offered prize CT SIS for
another, it was IA years before a sec
ond was found.
The cavern beetle has a little round
body, long legs and absolutely no eyes.
Brought out of its gloomy haunts into
the light of the sun, it dies almost i'm
| medlately. Yet in its pitch-dark home
far beneath the surface of the earth,
it moves with as great rapidity and
| certainty as any Of its eyed relatives
on the upper SOIL
To make up for it's lack of sight it
is provided with antennae of extraor-
binary length and delicacy. By means
OF these it feels its way over the rough
surface of the stone and hunts its prey
other smaller blind insects-with
rapidity and absolute certainty.
The cavern beetle has it's enemies.
The blothrus Ga specimen of scorpion)
and the great eyeless spirit hunt it re-
morselessly. Prince Khevenhuller,
who thoroughly explored these caves
some years ago, describes it as a most
extraordinary sight to watch by the
light of candle a scorpion, absolutely
| eyeless, hunting beetle, equally
blind, along the cavern wall. Although
| the beetle was several feet in front of
| the scorpion and divided from it by a
flssure in the rock, yet the scorpion
| tracked it with absolute and almost
appalling certainty.
The spider found in these caves is
of lovely ivory white and is able,
| like other insects which inhabit the
! same subterranean depths, to run
| rapidly and find it's way with as pos
| tive certainty as if it had eyes and
light to use them. Like several of the
| others, it, too, perishes if taken out
of the cave. Sunlight seems to wither
and shrivel up these insects, just
if they had been placed in front of a
hot fire.
Yet, in spite Of this fact, it is known
that the blind cave creatures are de-
! scended from others which originally
| lived in the light of day
An ordinary proof of this is that,
| though no faintest ray marks the diff
| ference between day and darkness in
/ the depths they live in, yet it has been
ascertained beyond shadow of doubt
| that those whose ancestors were noe
turnal in their habits still prefer to
move about during those hours when
| the surface of the earth is in dark
ness.
Numbers of different kinds of fish
are known to live in the gloomy rivers
and lakes which exist in all large
caves.
At San Marcos, Tex, borings were
recently made to provide water sup
ply for some new fish hatcheries. At
a depth of 1873 feet great stream of
water was struck, which shot up at
the rate of 1000 gallons a minute.
With it came thousands of tiny,
shrimp-like creatures, and also a
large number of curious little, pale
colored reptiles, provided with log
tails and each having four legs. These
tiny monsters were absolutely eyeless.
The only trace that they ever pos
sessed such organs are two little black
| spots above the nostrils.
] A similar creature known as the ohm
inhabits the rivers in the Austrian
caves already mentioned. In the
depths of the Planina cave, nearly a
mile and half from the entrance, the
ohm is most abundant The waters
are fairly alive with them, and when
some years ago the Archduke Ferdi-
nand paid visit to this cave net
was let down and number of the lit
tie reptiles caught for his benefit
Chicago Chronicle.