Milford chronicle., 1905-05-26
LIGHT KILLS THEM.
Strange Fish and Insects That Live
In Perpetual Darkness.


In Perpetual Darkness.
The cavern beetle was first discover.
ed some seventy years ago in an Aus.
trian cave, the grotto Of Adelsberg
One specimen only was caught, and,
though its discoverer offered a prize
Of IS for another, it was fourteen years
before a second was found.
The cavern beetle has a little round
body, very long legs and absolutely
no eyes at all. Brought out from its
gloomy haunts into the light Of the
sun it dies almost Immediately. 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 its lack of sight it
is provided with antennae of extraordi-
nary 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
great rapidity and absolute certainty.
The cavern beetle has its enemies.
and the great eyeless spider hunt it
remorselessly. Prince Khevenhuller.
who thoroughly explored th Sc cases
some years ago, describes J. as a most
extraordinary sight TO watch by the
light Of a candle a SCORPION, absolutely
eyeless, hunting a beet equally blind,
along the cavern wch Although the
beetle was several feet ln front Of the
scorpion and divided from it by a is-
sure iii the rock, ct the scorpion track
ed it with absolute and almost ap-
palling certah y
The spider round in these caves is Of
a lovely ivory white and is able, like
other insects which inhabit the same
subterrinean depths, to run very rap
idly eld find its way with as positive
certainty as il 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 as though |
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 darkness.
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
made to provide a water sup
ply for some new fresh hatcheries. At
d depth Of 1SS feet a 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
and also a large number Of
furious little pale cclored reptiles pro-
Tided with long tails and each having
our legs. These tiny monsters were /
absolutely eyeless. The only trace that ;
hey ever possessed such organs are
wo little black spots above the nos
rlls.
A similar creature known as the Olm !
nhabits the rivers in the Austrian
aves already mentioned. In the
epths of the Planina cave, nearly a
nile and a half from the entrance, the !
I'm is most abundant. The waters are
airly alive with them. and when, some
ears ago, the Archduke Ferdinand
aid a visit to this cave net was let :
own and a number Of the little rep
les caught for his beneit-London
it-Bits .