searchable PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

and larvae of this species have been collected recentlyin many caves in Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan.This is apparently a troglophile. The adults areusually seen resting on the cave walls near entrances,while the larvae inhabit silty areas in dry parts of thecaves.Order ColeopteraThe order Coleoptera is well represented in thecaves of Mexico and Central America. Althoughabout 270 species have been identified from caves inthis region, only 25 are known to be troglobites (seeTable 26). This is an amazingly low number of troglobitesfor so vast and diverse an area, but it has alreadybeen noted many times that the beetle faunaof tropical regions is very poorly represented bytroglobites (Vandel, 1964). The reasons for this arenot clear, and only additional collecting and a betterunderstanding of tropical faunas in general will helpto explain the paucity of troglobitic beetles in thetropics. The following discussion of the beetle faunaof this region can, of course, only emphasize thosefamilies which have made a significant contributionto the cavemicole fauna. Because of their frequentGUATEMALAr"'\,... .,..'.-'/./Fig. 75.-Distribution of troglobitic and troglophilic homopterans of the families Cixiidae and Kinnaridae: 1, Kinnaridaegen. et sp.; 2, Oeclidius hades; 3, Cixius orcus; 4, Cixiidae gen. et sp.217