火山列岛 06

Rare crickets scale the rocks

while translucent earwigs

and milky millipedes forage for food

These are cave specialists,

or troglobites,

and they never leave the lava tube

Over time,most have lost their eyes and colour,

like this plant hopper

Its tail has a curious function

Any predator biting it from behind

will be left with nothing but a mouthful of irritating waxy hair

This is a place of ghostly stillness -

a definite advantage for the small-eyed big-eyed hunting spider

With its super-sensitive leg hairs,

it can pick up the slightest movement in the air,

and it senses the cricket's presence

long before it's close enough to ambush

As prey are few and far between,

this may be its last meal for some time

With no light and little vegetation,

only the specialists survive here

But that isn't the case for all lava tubes