Merapoh 2012 - pt 8, cave fauna

During the caving expedition in Merapoh we saw a variety of cave fauna. Here are a few of the critters that we found. Frogs and toads were quite common.

These are all Phrynoides aspera

This pretty frog is Hylarana labialis

We saw cave racers in 3 caves. One had more of a yellow colour than the other two. Two were coiled up on ledges so it was not easy to get photos.

Normally crickets are common in Malaysian caves, but these caves in Merapoh had very few of the common Diestrammena crickets. This is a large species

Whip spiders (Amblypygids) were quite common.

Gua Jinjang Pelamin had quite a lot of scorpions, probably a Lychas species

The one above is eating a cockroach and the one below is eating a newly moulted spider

There were long legged centipedes, Thereuopoda

Huntsman spiders, this one is missing a leg

and this one is sitting on an egg sac

A web spider, probably Psechrus

There were very few millipedes

Of course there were bats in most of the caves. The majority were insect eating bats.

There were goat droppings in several caves (above). And in Gua Gajah Merah we saw elephant droppings -

Termite trails going around one cave entrance

and these tunnels seem to be made by ants, not termites

I saw lots of gecko eggs, but no geckoes

A (bird) nest

Outside one cave we saw bear prints in the soil

There were lots of yellow shells outside the caves, Amphidromus atricallosus perakensis (thanks to Reuben Clements for ID)

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission