American Scientist

March-April 2011

Volume: 99 Number: 2

In the blackness of a cave, the glowworms of New Zealand may bemuse prey by mimicking a starry nighttime sky. The luminescent larvae of <em>Arachnocampa luminosa</em> capture their prey by dangling sticky silk threads from their inverted perches. A more usual feature of cave ecosystems is the entire absence of light. In "The Evolution of Cave Life," Aldemaro Romero, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and professor of biology and environmental studies, serves as the guide for a field trip into the underworld, where evolutionary forces lead to striking, characteristic and, we are now coming to realize, generally misunderstood patterns of adaptation. (Photograph by Frances Furlong/Oxford Scientific/Photolibrary.)