The NSS Bulletin - ISSN 1090-6924
Volume 45 Number 2: 34-40 - April 1983
A publication of the National Speleological Society

The Obligatory Subterranean Invertebrates in Glaciated Southeastern Indiana
Julian J. Lewis

Abstract

Nineteen species of troglobites and phreatobites have been found in subterranean habitats in southeastern Indiana, including 17 species of arthropods, 1 turbellarian, and 1 gastropod. Among the arthropod species found were 4 isopods (Caecidotea), 4 amphipods (Stygobromus, Bacturus, Crangonyx), and 6 bettles (Pseudanophthalmus, Batrisodes). The fauna probably moved into Indiana before the Kansan entrenchment of the Ohio River and inhabited caves in the unglaciated Mitchell Plain and Crawford Upland of southcentral Indiana until the Illinoian glacier retreated. After the southeastern Indiana karst region became free of its ice cover, the ancestors of today's cave fauna invaded the area. Isolation in caves occurred during the Sangamon interglacial. There is little evidence of subsequent range expansion during the Wisconsian glaciation. Today, almost all of the troglobitic fauna is found near the Illinoian glacier's maximum extent.

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