Cave Crickets

Importance / Issues

The population structure and dynamics of Ceuthophilus spp. and Hadenoecus spp. may be significant to resource managers of government land holdings because in caves without large bat colonies these genera are typically the primary conduits for the regular input of organic matter into the subsurface habitat.

Cave crickets are important to cave food webs because they feed in the relatively productive surface habitat and transport nutrients, in the form of guano, into the subsurface habitat where productivity is nonexistent.

Cave cricket eggs and feces support subsurface communities that may include rare, sometimes endemic, obligate cave-dwelling invertebrates.

We use a monitoring method protocol that, integrated with other monitoring protocols, will provide a long-term index of cricket population structure and dynamics through time and space.

Photograph of cave cricket cluster for analysis.
Photo by Kurt Helf.

Contact Information

Dr. Kurt Helf
P.O. Box 8
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave, KY 42259
(270) 758-2163

Monitoring Objectives

Determine temporal changes in population structure (e.g., age class and sex ratio) and relative abundance of cave crickets in sets of developed and undeveloped caves across Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA).
Determine potential effects of active management decisions, e.g., alteration of cave entrances, on cave cricket ecology within actively managed caves. Specific study focus will include assessment of cave-entrance modification effects on cricket exit/entry patterns, management impact on population structure, and localized impacts on cricket use of ceiling roosts.

Hadeonoecus subterraneus. Photo by Rick Olson

Management Applications

Delineating specific management action correlation with cricket population parameters will better inform decisions made by MACA management, and will enable ecologists to distinguish the effects of management practices on cave cricket populations from potential effects due to other, natural sources (e.g., seasonal change in surface habitat).

Cave cricket movement within Frozen Niagara Cave during 2006. Green dots represent clusters of cave crickets waiting near the cave entrance to leave and forage on the surface. Orange dots represent clusters of cave crickets roosting farther back in the cave and digesting their food. Note the lack of orange dots near the center top of the map earlier in the year. Cave crickets avoided this area because it was brightly lighted. Between April and June 2006, park management removed the light source and so cave crickets now roost in this previously unutilized habitat.

Click "Continue" to see a demonstration of how a solid monitoring protocol and a good working relationship between Cumberland Piedmont Network and Mammoth Cave National Park staff results in effective management of cave resources.

**Printable copy of cave cricket resource brief**

Link to Cave Cricket Intranet page (NPS only)

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