Cave Life

Flora and Fauna of Caves - Speleobiology

Biospeleology (also Biospeology) is the scientific study of organisms living in caves. Plants, which need light for photosynthesis, can be found only in the entrance area of caves. Animals permanently living in caves are called troglobites. But most animals thought to be cave animals, like bats and cave bears, are just visitors to caves! Many animals use caves temporary for hibernation.

Therefore, typically three different types of cave animals are distinguished. The original classification into three groups was introduced by the Austrian entomologist Ignaz Rudolph Schiner in 1854. In 1907, it was modified by the Romanian biologist Emil Racoviţă (mostly transcribed as Racovitza) and it was used as Schiner-Racovitza system for decades. The system has often been criticized as imprecise, numerous cave biologists have suggested alternatives:

• The American entomologist Kenneth A. Christiansen proposed in 1962 a new system in which organisms should not be classified according to their habitat but according to morphological adaptations.
• The American speleologist Thomas Calhoun Barr jr. (1968) proposed a modified Schiner-Racovitza system.
• The zoologist and limnologist August Thienemann proposed an alternative system for aquatic organisms, which has been popularized by the work of Janine Gibert.
• The Italian researchers Mario Pavan (1944) and Sandro Ruffo (1957) extended the Schiner-Racovitza system by the group of subtroglophiles.

Since this website is only intended to provide a first insight into the topic, we mainly use the classic Schiner-Racovitza system.

Terrestrial			Aquatic	Explanation
Classic	Modern	English
Troglobiont	Eutroglobiont	Cave Animals	Stygobite	An animal that lives in a cave and is unable to live outside of it. Troglobionts usually have troglomorphic adaptions.
Troglophil	Eutroglophil	Cave Loving Animals	Stygophile	An animal which frequently completes its life cycle in caves but is not confined to this habitat.
Trogloxen	Subtroglophil	Cave Visitor	Stygoxene	An animal which lives above ground but visits the cave for certain reasons (overnight, hibernation, hideout,...).
	Eutrogloxen	Accidential Visitor		An animal which is not living in cave and gets there by accident.

• Troglobionts
• Troglophiles
• Trogloxenes

Special Aspects of Biospeleology

• Troglomorphy
• Hommingberger Gepardenforelle
• White-nose Syndrome

• See also
• Search Google for "Biospeleology"
• Troglofauna (visited: 23-AUG-2018)
• Distribution Map of Caves and Cave Animals in the United States (pdf)
• Cave Life of Britain