28 de marzo de 2024

Cave A Guano Cave, Die Hel, Groot Winterhoek

Trip Date: 2024-03-22

Cave A: 2024-03-22

This is the largest cave at the pool. (147m from entrance drip line to the back wall). The first third of the cave floor closest to the entrance is covered in drift wood. The last third of the cave floor is covered by a thick layer of mostly dry and dusty bat guano. On previous visits to the cave, this was a wet, glutinous goo.

Bats

Miniopterus and Rhinolphus roost in a little side passage on the north wall, and in two small chambers at the back of the cave. Rousettus roost in the ceiling of cave directly over the biggest pile of guano. There are fewer Rousettus than I remember.

Cave Walls

The northern wall of the cave next to the guano pile is full of large spiders. Approx. 5 per m2

Guano

I was surprised how little life was visible on the surface of the guano. The most abundant inset was a small flying bug with long antennae.

Water

The stream was full of life. A planarian, a small isopod I only saw in the photographs afterwards and many strong swimming Parameltia nigroculus.

Publicado el marzo 28, 2024 05:59 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 11 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

25 de marzo de 2024

Cave B, Bat Cave, Die Hel , Groot Winterhoek

Trip Date: 2024-03-22 to 2024-03-23

Cave B: 2024-03-22

The entrance to this cave is full of drift wood, and a stream flows out of the cave.

On the way to the upper level, a Cedarberg Ghost frog had wedged itself into a crack about 2m above the floor. There were also a lot of moths in the area.

I disturbed a few hundred Miniopterus bats in the upper chamber, and also saw some Rhinolophus. I thought I saw a Myotis, but could not be certain. One Rhinolophus was still flaying around with a pup attached to her.

I found 1 Stone centipede which attempted to escape into a crack. Unfortunately it was damaged when I tried to extract it.

There were 2 bed bugs and lots of spiders in the cave.

On leaving the top chamber, I came around another Ghost frog on the cave wall at least 6m above the ground.

Publicado el marzo 25, 2024 11:05 MAÑANA por peterswart peterswart | 12 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

10 de marzo de 2024

Sarcophagus Cave

Trip Date: 2024-03-10

Visited Sarcophagus Cave to look for bugs.

My last visit was in Nov 1993. This cave is small, with less than 20m of passage. The high level left hand fork is very narrow and mostly dry. The right hand fork descends from the entrance to a small chamber. A stream issues from a narrow crack and forms a small pool (40cm diameter) on the floor. The stream was flowing and the pool was full, even at the end of March. The cave does not have a true dark zone, so apart from the three entrances, the rest of the cave can be considered a transition zone for bug purposes.

Left passage Pool and surrounds
8x Paramelita, 6 large and 2 quite small.
1x very small, gray flat worm
7x Spelaeiacris tabularis, 4 large, 3 small
2x very fine sheet spider webs in cracks, no spiders visible.

Left passage entrance
There is very dense fynbos and a small tree outside the left entrance, and rich humus falls into the cave. There is also an old plastic bag buried in the soil, and the rusted remains of an old camping gaz canister.

This humus was home to many small bugs and spiders, including 2 harvestmen. I also finally found the spider that creates the sheet webs.

Publicado el marzo 10, 2024 04:54 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 22 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

11 de febrero de 2024

Devil's Pit Cave - Transition Zone

Trip Date: 2024-02-11

The objective of this trip was to see what lives in the transition zone at the bottom of Devil's Pit lower entrance.

To get into the the lower entrance of Devil's Pit, you negotiate a 2m drop through a boulder choke. This is in a small copse of trees, so there is a lot of plant debris in the first section. Near the bottom of the boulder choke a sandy passage runs off towards the bottom of the main pit via 'Creepy Corridor' , and a choke continues down into 'Free Drinks Saloon'. There is direct sunlight at the bottom of the choke, but 'Creepy Corridor' and 'Free Drinks Saloon' are mostly, but not completely dark. My search concentrated on these most dark sections.

Apart from the cave crickets, most of the things I saw were spiders.

One wall of creepy corridor is covered with fine plant roots, and running freely over these roots was a small Pholcidae spider. It attempted to avoid my torch light and was very difficult to photograph.

On a piece of rotting log on the floor of the cave, I found a Phyxelididae spider

At the darkest end of Creepy Corridor, an Izithunzi capense spider. This was one of the lighter coloured specimens. The Izithunzi in the lower part of the cave were much darker in colour.

There few also a few very small Phyxelididae spiders running around on the humus on the floor of the cave.

Free Drinks Saloon is the lowest part of the entrance, and a stream issues from a narrow passage 1.5m above the camber floor, and disappears into another narrow passage entrance at floor level. Someone has left a number of 2litre plastic ice-cream containers to store water. Most of the containers collecting water that drips from the ceiling, but one container collects water as the stream falls from the upper passage. A Taeniochauliodes fuscus (Table Mountain Fishfly) larva was trapped in this container. It was about 35mm long, and moved very sluggishly.

There was another Phyxelididae spider amongst the rocks on the floor. This spider spent most of the time trying to escape me by moving around upside down under its web.

Spermophora peninsulae occurred through out the area under examination. The spiders that were inside the very dark areas of the cave each occurred in its own web. The same species was found in webs around the entrance to the cave, in direct sun light. These spiders in the direct sun light often appeared to share a common web, with up to 4 spiders of similar size in the same web.

I searched for, but did not find any harvestmen.

Publicado el febrero 11, 2024 12:45 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 7 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

12 de noviembre de 2023

Johalvin Cave - Transition Zone

Trip Date: 2023-11-11
The objective of this trip was to see what lives in Johalvin Cave, Kalk Bay Mountains

Egyptian Cave

Popped on at Eyptian Cave to look for a missing coffee mug. Did not find the mug, but found tweezers I left behind last week.

I found:

  • 8x Spermophora peninsulae within 0.5m x 0.5 m, appeared to be sharing the same web
  • Small white amphipod
  • A bristletail close to the entance.
  • I could NOT find the mosquitos I saw last week

Johalvin Cave

Johalvin Cave is an enlarge crack under the floor of a tree filled alcove. The floor of the cave is between 4m and 6m below the floor of the alcove. Most of the cave receives some filtered light for most of the day, while there are some small permanently dark areas at the back of the cave.

Water drips into the cave from the ceiling, and runs out through a narrow passage towards Commemoration Hall Cave, and Broken Pot Grotto.

Most of the cave can thus be considered to be an Transistion Zone. Under the sky light entrance, there is a lot of rotting leaf material and any animals in this area could have fallen into the cave. I spent 4.5 hours in this relatively small cave, and found the following:

I found:

  • 27x Cave Crickets
  • 5x False violin spiders. Some lived very close (overlapping webs) with similar sized Phyxelididae spiders
  • lots of other spiders
  • 3x bristletails
  • bat droppings (very old)
  • Moths
  • 1x Planarian (No photo)
  • 1x harvestman
  • 2 snails

The soil under the sky light is full of life. Colembola, diplura, symphyla, earthworms, centipedes, isopods, amphipods and much more. All of these are too small to photograph with my current gear.

Publicado el noviembre 12, 2023 06:32 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 24 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

07 de noviembre de 2023

Cave Entrances - Egyptian Cave

Trip Date: 2023-11-05
The objective of this trip was to see what lives in Entrance Zone of Egyptian Cave

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:

Publicado el noviembre 7, 2023 06:15 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 6 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

22 de octubre de 2023

Dark Zone - Robin Hood Cavern

Dark Zone + Entrance

Trip Date: 2023-10-21, Most of this trip was spent in the 35m of stream passage below the entrance boulder choke. Some observations were made in the twilight zone in the cave entrance, but this was an after thought, and not part of the original plan. I was underground for about 4.5 hours.

The water temperature was 13.7 degrees C (TG6 sensor).

I found the following:

  • Paramelita capensis. I counted about 50, but I'm sure there were a lot more as they tend to keep close to rocks and stones, and often hide underneath rocks. There was also a ball of them that appears to be eating a large dead amphipod. On closer inspection of the photographs, it looks like planaria were also in the "ball".
  • An Isopod. This small white isopod (3.7mm long) was walking along a wet cave wall very close to a flowing stream.
  • Fungus I think it is fungus. It is spongy to the touch, but not very soft.
  • I only counted 4 adult Spelaeiacris tabulae in the main cave passage and another two much small cave crickets on the crawl out through the boulder choke.
  • This fly was well into the dark zone of the cave. When I first examined the walls of the caves, I did not see much life at all. On closer examination of some of the alcoves in the cave wall, I noticed they were filled with very fine, difficult to see spider webs. I did not find the spiders. This fly was on the edge of a 30cmx40xmx20cm recess in the wall. I'm not sure whether it was attached to the web or not.
  • In the twilight zone entrance chamber, this beetle was caught in the web or a large Izuthunzi capensisspider. The spider did not like my light and hid in a crevice.
  • I saw three Spermophora peninsulaeThe first two were so small I kept on losing them, even though they were right infront of me.
  • I saw one bristletail.
Publicado el octubre 22, 2023 01:23 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 11 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

02 de octubre de 2023

Cave Entrances - Constantiaberg

Trip Date: 2023-10-01
The objective of this trip was to see what lives in Entrance Zone of caves on Constantiaberg.

Elephant Arse Cave

Despite there being quite a lot of running and standing water in the cave, and an hour long search, I did not find any amphipods in the water. I did not see any planaria either.

I did find:

Aboulia Cave

This cave has many entrances, all of which lead to a passage which is parallel to the external cliff, which is 2m to 5m away. This means that the passage is very tightly coupled to the external surface conditions. The water was 25cm deep in places, and full of Paramelita.

Search time 1 hour:

Sensor: TG6 Camera

  • Water temp inside: 8.5; 8.5; 8.9 [deg C] (left camera in water for 2 mins)
  • Air temp inside: 10.5; 10.6; 11.5 [deg C]
  • Air temp outside: 16.1; 16.3; 16.6; 16.8 [deg C] (it felt warmer)
  • Cave alt: (inside the cave passage): 838.1; 854.9; 854.6 [m]
Publicado el octubre 2, 2023 01:17 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

09 de septiembre de 2023

Cave Entrances

Trip Date: 2023-09-09

The objective of this trip was to see what lives in entrance of caves on Ridge Peak at Kalk Bay.

Ronan's Well Cave

I limited the search area to the walls and floor of the Voorkamer as far as the pool at the bottom of the staircase. The stream flows out of Ronan's Well and into Echo Valley.

  • Paramelita: There were lots (20+) of Paramelita of all sizes in the pools. Some were eating green moss leaves from the walls of the cave.
  • Planaria: There were a few varying from 4mm to 15mm long. this one was 10mm long and gray in colour.
  • Bristletails: I found 4 Bristletails, in cracks on the cave walls.
  • Spelaeiacris. Two small cave crickets where in a crack in the cave wall, very close to the entrance and far from the dark part of the cave.
  • Spiders: At least 3 species of spider. Spermophora peninsulae appeared to be the most common. There was also what looked like Spermophora peninsulae, but they had very small bodies (<1mm) and appeared white in colour.

Tjoklets Grotto

The stream from Drip Water Pot flows through Ridge Peak and out of Tjkolets Grotto. As this cave follows a similar line to the Robin Hood/Ronan's Well system, I would expect to see similar water life in these two systems. There was far less water life than I expected.

  • Paramelita capensis??
  • Planaria (white)
  • Spelaeiacris

Styx Dungeon

The entrance to this cave is in a tree filled depression, so I sampled the leaf litter on the outside of the cave entrance and on the inside to see the difference. The sample from inside the cave was approx 3m below the entrance. The rotting leaf litter was home to:

  • Colembola
  • Millipede
  • Millipede
  • Symphylans
  • Isopod
  • Harvestman (very small and white)

Boomslang

I popped in to Boomslang Cave to check on the bats, but the Miniopterus roosting spot was empty.

Observations to be posted shortly

Publicado el septiembre 9, 2023 09:01 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Boomslang Cave

Trip Date: 2023-08-27

Bats

There was one lonely Rhinolophus near the entrance pool, but the Miniopterus where not in their usual spot.

Harvestmen

Found two harvestmen on a rotting log in a short side passage next to the boulder pile. The passage was full of spiders.

Middle Pool

Photographed Paramelita and Planaria

Publicado el septiembre 9, 2023 08:34 TARDE por peterswart peterswart | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario