Biology

Fauna

Bats are the most representative animals in caves, but they are not the only ones. In the deepest part of caves, there is a peculiar and highly vulnerable fauna known as troglobia, perfectly adapted to the extreme underground environment.

Due to the absence of light and the high ambient humidity, troglobites often exhibit reduced or lost eyes, thinning and depigmentation of the outer cuticle, elongation of the body and appendages, and enhanced tactile and chemical sensory organs. Food scarcity and the need to conserve energy favor a highly varied diet and their ability to withstand fasting. Adult specimens are usually very long-lived, with a slow-paced life, frequent periods of dormancy, and the absence of daily and annual rhythms. When they reproduce, the eggs are small, scarce, and have slow embryonic development.

The troglobite fauna of a cave typically includes endemic species, meaning exclusive to the cave, which represent a resource of great scientific value. From a biogeographic and evolutionary perspective, some species are considered paleoendemics, meaning they are relics of a mostly extinct fauna.

Among the troglobites inhabiting the Cueva de Nerja, the following have been identified: the beetle Platyderus speleus (Cobos, 1961), the orthopteran Petaloptila malacitana (Barranco, 2010), the pseudoscorpion Ephippiochthonius nerjaensis (Carabajal Márquez, García Carrillo & Rodríguez Fernández, 2001), the diplura Plusiocampa baetica (Sendra, 2004), and the isopod Porcellio narixae (Cifuentes, 2018), with the latter three species also being endemic to the Nerja cave.