Diario de peterswart

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:

• False violin spiders
• 1x Another spider??
• 4x bristletails
• dassie droppings
• another dropping

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:

• a planarian (Dugessiidae)
• a moth caught in a web
• 3x False violin spiders
• 1x snail
• Paramelita capensis?
• Bristletail waliking on water

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]

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.