Effect on Organisms of Summer Drought in Caves

Abstract

AMONG the most interesting of cavicolous invertebrates from Herzegowina is the Serpulid, Marifugia cavatica Abs.and Hrabě¹. This remarkable worm, although belonging to a typical marine group, forms its calcareous tubes in great quantities over the walls and ceiling of the inland limestone cave known as Crnulja, in Popovopolje. The worm itself is known from this and a few neighbouring caves only ; deserted tubes or their debris are more widely distributed, and may point to the existence of the worm in uninvestigated recesses of caves as far north as Istria. While visiting Popovopolje in August 1937 I found debris of the tubes in the much-explored Vjetrenica peina, where Remy² has stated that it does not occur. I brought back some of the living worms from Crnulja to England, and am indebted to Mr. C. C. A. Monro for confirmation of the species.