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searchable PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

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collected a troglobitic cirolanid isopod from a well inMonterrey, Nuevo Leon, which was described byA. S. Packard (1900). With the exception of a fewscattered records of bats, birds, fishes, and snailsthese are the only publications on <strong>Mexican</strong> cavefauna prior to 1936.In the summer of 1932 Edwin P. Creaser, F. G.Hall, and A. S. Pearse investigated 35 cenotes andcaves in the state of Yucatan. The volume resultingfrom their studies, published in 1936, has become aclassic in biospeleologicalliterature. Although emphasizingthe taxonomy of the collected fauna, this workincluded one of the first studies ever made on thephysical and chemical nature of karst waters in NorthAmerica (Hall, 1936). Pearse's (1936d) observationson the ecology of cenotes and caves are of someinterest to the student of the evolution of cave faunas.Although about 70 species were reported fromcaves and cenotes in the state of Yucatan, only fourcrustaceans were troglobites. Creaser (1936) describednew species of isopod, mysid, and shrimp.In the summer of 1936 A. S. Pearse continued hisstudies of the subterranean fauna of Mexico with theexploration of 27 caves in various parts of the state ofYucatan. The results of this expedition were collectedin a volume published in 1938 by the Carnegie Institutionof Washinbrl:on. A total of about 300 animalspecies were identified, of which many were newspecies. Ten species of troglobite were added to thecave fauna of Yucatan, of which eight were terrestrial.Two spiders (Chamberlin and Ivie, 1938b), oneisopod (Creaser, 1938), one milliped (Chamberlin,1938), three collembolans (Mills, 1938), one cricket(Hubbell, 1938), and two fish (Hubbs, 1938) wereconsidered to be troglobites.In 1936 Salvador Coronado discovered in CuevaChica, San Luis Potosi, the first known species ofeyeless characin. It was described by C. 1. Hubbs andW. T. Innes (1936) as Anoptichthys jordani. The easewith which this species could be maintained in aquariainspired an expedition in March 1940 by the NewYork Aquarium. The members of the party includedC. M. Breder, Jr., E. B. Gresser, M. B. Bishop, WilliamBridges, S. C. Dunton, and Salvador Coronado. Athorough collection was made in the cave of both fishand invertebrates, and the initial results were publishedby Bridges (1940) and Breder (1942). Theunique situation in which this species was found, itspresence in vast numbers, the ease with which it couldbe raised in the laboratory, and its ability to interbreedwith its surface ancestor Astyanax mexicanus(Filippi) have led to its study by numerous Americanand European workers over the past 43 years. The descriptionof two additional species, AnoptichthysantTobius Alvarez (1946) and Anoptichthys hubbsiAlvarez (1947), inspired still further study of theseremarkable fish. In the 38 years since the originaldescription of A. jordani more than 200 publicationshave been more or less devoted to the study of thespecies.In 11)38 two distinguished Spanish biospeleologists,Federico Bonet and Candido Bolivar y Pieltain,emigrated to Mexico and began an intensive study ofits cave fauna. Their work during the next 20 yearsgreatly expanded our knowledge of the cave biologyof Mexico.Their investigations began with a visit to Grutas deCacahuamilpa on December 13-16, 1939. This expedition,conducted in conjunction with A. Dampf andD. Pelaez, led to the discovery of many of the samespecies reported by Bilimek and of several new species(Bolivar, 1940). A second visit was made onJune 13, 1940, by D. Pelaez.During December 1939 and January 1940, lIortonII. Hobbs, Jr., A. F. Carr, Jr., and others visited acave near Hacienda Potrero Viejo, Veracruz, resultingin the discovery of the first blind crayfish knownfrom Mexico (Hobbs, 1943). On May 7,1940, Ivan T.Sanderson collected ricinuleids in Actun Kaua, Yucatan(Sanderson, 1941). During an expedition <strong>for</strong> thepurpose of collecting insects and arachnids of medicalimportance, Harry Hoogstraal visited several caves inNuevo Leon. This included a trip on June 16, 1940,to Cueva de la Boca and the discovery of the firsttroglobitic centiped known from Mexico (Chamberlin,1941).In 1941 three trips of some importance were madeby F. Bonet and C. Bolivar y Pieltain. On January 16a visit to the large, Olmec cave, Grutas de Jllxtlahuaca,Guerrero, led to the discovery o[ several troglubites.Trips on May 30 and November 11-13 to Grutasde Atoyac, Veracruz, also resulted in the discoveryof several troglobites.In April 1942 F. Bonet, C. Bolivar y Pieltain, B. F.Osorio Ta[all, D. Pelaez, F. Cardenas, M. Correa, andJ. Alvarez visited Cueva Chica and Cueva de Los Sabinos,San Luis PotOSI (Anonymous, 11)42a). Amongthe more remarkable discoveries in the latter cavewere new species of troglobitic ricinuleid (Bolivar,1946), isopod (Bolivar, 1950), fish (Alvarez, 1947),and phalangid (Goodnight and Goodnight, 1942).Cueva de Los Sabinos was revisited July 19 by C.Bolivar y Pieltain, B. F. Osorio Tafall, and M. cardenas.These two trips resulted in one of the more significantpublications on the aquatic fauna of <strong>Mexican</strong>caves (Osorio Tafall, 1943).The research by members of the Escuela _ acionalde Ciencias Biol6gicas de Mexico was expanded into6

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