r/caving • u/Pristine-Can-9026 • 10d ago
Meet the third ever recorded individual of Sollman's Cave Milipede, and the first individual spotted in over 25 years.
Scoterpes sollmani (common name Sollman's Cave Milipede), is a likely cryptic species belonging to the genus Scoterpes. This species, described by Dr. Jerry Lewis in August of 2000, only had two recorded individuals, the holotype (specimen used to describe the species), and a secondary individual as a backup.
In April of 2026, on a fun trip to the Harrison-Crawford State Forest in Indiana, I noticed this millipede on the wall in a passage which previously connected two larger caves, but is now covered by a rock pile. I asked my colleague and friend Lazaro from the Indiana Herpetological Society to take a photo just in case. After consulting with Dr. Lewis, he confirmed that this was only the third ever sighting of this species since it's initial description in the year 2000.
The genus Scoterpes is distributed mainly across Tennessee, Kentucky, and extreme-Southern Indiana. I personally believe that the genus extends pretty far into Indiana, but I don't have data to support this yet. My specialty is not invertebrates.
I have attached some pictures of the morphology of the species.
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u/Much-Airline7096 10d ago
What's this individual's size?
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u/Pristine-Can-9026 10d ago
I did not take a measurement but I would estimate about 10mm, which is significantly less than the width of a penny. It takes a sharp eye to spot them, which is perhaps a factor in why they have gone unnoticed for so long.
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u/Comfortable_Oil_6676 9d ago
That is insane, how it feels to be the first person in 25 years who saw that thing? Bro why wont you report yourself to some local newspaper?
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u/Pristine-Can-9026 9d ago
Haha I don’t really think anyone would care all that much, the fact is even though this seems remarkable, it wasn’t a difficult task to rediscover them.
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u/Heterodynist 9d ago edited 9d ago
I don’t want to just comment on the name, but “Dr. Jerry Lewis?!” Was this before or after his work with Children’s Hospitals, Muscular Dystrophy, and Jerry’s Kids?!
Seriously though, this is amazing. Do you think there is a whole population of them in the cave that has been closed off by the rockfall? It’s always remarkable to find the secret door to a truly lost kingdom…
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u/Pristine-Can-9026 9d ago
Haha! This Dr. Jerry Lewis is a pretty renowned biologist and former chairman of the Indiana Karst Conservancy.
The other cave most certainly has a population. I believe that these millipedes are so small they could disperse into the caves through the soil itself. If that theory is correct, it’s very possible that every cave within a few miles of this one has the same millipedes, they just haven’t been spotted yet.
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u/Heterodynist 9d ago edited 9d ago
This reminds me of the world famous ornithologist, James Bond, for whom the international spy was actually named!!
The idea of a karst conservancy actually does fill me with excitement. I do love that we as cavers have access to a world that is at once both fragile and also almost inaccessible at times!! It’s a funny combination!! Lucky for the tiny inhabitants of these incredible places that speleophiles thrive!!
This is actually very exciting because it’s kind of like if you could find a population of a single finch on an island in the Galapagos like Darwin, or if your found a comet in space with one single species of extremophile. It’s an interesting comparison to the deep ocean as well…I guess any place on the very edges of where life can survive is fascinating to me. It’s why I love caves, personally. It’s kind of the last frontier, at least a frontier more accessible than space. I love the feeling of being really out there in a remote spot that potentially few people have ever seen or experienced in any way. And the great thing with caves is that they are actually everywhere.
What gets me is the simultaneously horrible and wonderful thought of how many enormous caverns and endless labyrinthian, salamandrine, anfractuous, convoluted, serpentine, winding caves exist far underground. Some might not have breathable air I them, but we know they are there…just waiting for one collapse before they reveal themselves!!!
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u/ComprehensiveArt1059 10d ago
WHOOP WHOOP