Diario de peterswart

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.

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.

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.

Trip date: 2024-03-29

The upper parts of Six Moles Cave is quite dry and dusty, and home to a few Izithuni spiders. They live under the boulders in the top entrance chamber, just below and inside the northern entrance.

There were a lot of cave crickets through out the cave. Most however were concentrated at the deepest part of the cave where a winter time stream has cut a channel in the sandy floor. The stream was not flowing, but the sand was very damp.

This trip concentrated on bristletails. These occurredly main at the bottom of the southern entrance, and near the top of "The Corkscrew" descent. Although not easy to see, I found 7 in quick succession. When disturbed, their first reaction was to run for the nearest crack or crevice, and only when that did not work, they jumped.

One bristletail was both inside the cave entrance, and in direct sunlight. As soon as the camera approached, it very quickly hid in a crevice.

All of the others were at the bottom of the boulder choke in narrow cracks between boulders. This made photography very difficult, as some of the cracks were less than 20cm wide. Some were on the bottom of the large boulders that form the ceiling of the chamber. There is very a little leaf litter on the cave floor at this point. The bristletails were found much higher up on the walls and ceiling, and nowhere near the leaf litter.

Perhaps they use the boulder choke as a day time refuge, and ascend to leave the cave and feed on the surface at night?