Cave dung fly
Spelobia tenebrarum (Aldrich, 1897)
Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Hexapoda |
| Class | Insecta |
| Order | Diptera |
| Family | Sphaeroceridae |
| Genus | Spelobia |
| Species | Spelobia tenebrarum (Aldrich, 1897) |
Synonyms
- Limosina stygia Coquillett, 1897 (subjective synonym, CoL)
- Limosina tenebrarum Aldrich, 1897 (prior combination, CoL)
Description
Diagnostic characters
- Ecological class
- Troglobiont
- Realm
- Terrestrial
- Troglomorphy
- Troglomorphic
Distribution
Type locality
Wyandotte Cave, Crawford Co. IN
Range
Known from 79 counties across 13 states across three karst regions.
Continent
North America
Country
United States
States and provinces
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia
Counties
- Alabama
- Jackson, Madison, Morgan
- Arkansas
- Washington
- Georgia
- Chattooga, Dade, Walker
- Illinois
- Calhoun, Hardin, Jackson, Johnson, Monroe, Pope, Saline, St. Clair, Union
- Indiana
- Clark, Crawford, Lawrence, Monroe
- Kentucky
- Barren, Bell, Breckinridge, Carter, Christian, Edmonson, Estill, Grayson, Hardin, Hart, Muhlenberg, Nelson, Ohio, Pike, Pulaski, Todd, Warren, Wayne, Whitley
- Missouri
- Barry, Carter, Franklin, Howell, Jefferson, Laclade, Oregon, Perry, St. Genevieve, St. Louis, Stone, Taney
- New York
- Sullivan
- Pennsylvania
- Mifflin
- Tennessee
- Bledsoe, Cannon, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Dickson, Fentress, Franklin, Grundy, Jackson, Marion, Montgomery, Overton, Perry, Pickett, Rhea, Rutherford, Sequatchie, Stewart, Van Buren, Warren, White, Wilson
- Virginia
- Lee
- West Virginia
- Greenbrier
Karst regions
Appalachians, Interior Low Plateau, Ozarks
Specimens
Type material
- Lectotype
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Collections holding material
| Institution | Lots |
|---|---|
| National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution | 1 |
1 cataloged lot in 1 collection. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.
Download all 1 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.
Conservation and management
NatureServe
G5 Secure
Global rank last reviewed 2010.
Subnational ranks
- Alabama
- S2 Imperiled
- Arkansas
- SNR Unranked
- Georgia
- SNR Unranked
- Illinois
- SNR Unranked
- Indiana
- S5 Secure
- Kentucky
- S3 Vulnerable
- Missouri
- SNR Unranked
- New York
- SNR Unranked
- Oklahoma
- S1 Critically Imperiled
- Pennsylvania
- SNR Unranked
- Tennessee
- S4S5 Apparently Secure to Secure
- Virginia
- S1 Critically Imperiled
- West Virginia
- SNR Unranked
State and federal status
Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Other resources
References
- Aldrich, J.M. 1897. A collection of Diptera from Indiana caves. In: Blatchley, W.S. (ed), The Fauna of Indiana Caves. Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources (1896), pp. 186–190. Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, Indianapolis, IN, USA. https://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=67836. details
- Bailey, V. 1933. Cave Life of Kentucky. US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, DC, USA. 256 pp.
- Banta, A.M. 1907. The fauna of Mayfield's Cave. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 67: 1–114. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/60987. details
- Barr, T.C., Jr. & Kuehne, R.A. 1971. Ecological studies in the Mammoth Cave system of Kentucky. II. The Ecosystem. Annales de Speleologie 26: 47–96. doi:10.5038/1827-806X.3.1.10
- Dixon, G.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2011. Cave-obligate biodiversity on the campus of Sewanee: The University of the South, Franklin County, Tennessee. Southeastern Naturalist 10: 251–266. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41263008. details
- Giovannoli, L. 1933. Invertebrate life of Mammoth and other neighboring caves. In: Bailey, V. (ed), Cave Life of Kentucky, pp. 600–623.
- Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1979. Caves and associated fauna of Eastern Kentucky, Volume 3. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 130 pp.
- Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1980. Caves and associated fauna of the Western Kentucky coal field, Volume 2. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 114 pp.
- Lewis, J.J. 2004. Interstate 66 karst faunal study. Environmental Impact Statement. 17 pp.
- Lewis, J.J. 2005a. A biological inventory of caves of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 156 pp.
- Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2005. Inventory of the subterranean fauna of Tims Ford State Park, Franklin County, Tennessee. Tennesee Natural Heritage Program, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 28 pp.
- Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2007. A biological reconnaissance of selected caves in the Highland Rim area of central Tennessee. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 42 pp.
- Lewis, J.J., Moss, P., Tecic, D. & Nelson, M.E. 2003. A conservation focused inventory of subterranean invertebrates of the southwestern Illinois karst. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 65: 9–21.
- Lewis, J.J., Whitaker, J.O. & Krantz, G.W. 2010. A biological reconnaissance of the invertebrate fauna of twelve Tennessee caves with notes on the guanophilic mites of the genus Macrocheles. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 85: 53–61.
- Marshall, S.A. & Peck, S.B. 1984. Distribution of cave-dwelling Sphaeroceridae (Diptera) of eastern North America. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Ontario 115: 37–41.
- Niemiller, M.L., Anderson, C.L., Maxwell, E.C., Midgette, H., Quering, C., Richards, M., Wilson, K. & Wirwa, N. 2025b. A noteworthy range extension of the federally endangered Alabama Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias alabamae) south of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. Southeastern Naturalist 24: N47-N58. doi:10.1656/058.024.0403
- Niemiller, M.L., Fenolio, D.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2012b. The obligate cave fauna of Georgia. Bulletin of the Georgia Speleological Survey 2012: 6–12.
- Niemiller, M.L., Slay, M.E., Inebnit, T., Miller, B., Tobin, B., Cramphorn, B., Hinkle, A., Jones, B.D., Mann, N. & Niemiller, K.D.K. 2023a. Fern Cave: a hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the Interior Low Plateau karst region of Alabama in the southeastern United States. Diversity 15: 633. doi:10.3390/d15050633
- Niemiller, M.L. & Zigler, K.S. 2013. Patterns of cave biodiversity and endemism in the Appalachians and Interior Plateau of Tennessee, USA. PLOS One 8: e64177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064177
- Niemiller, M.L., Zigler, K.S., Hinkle, A., Stephen, C.D.R., Cramphorn, B., Higgs, J., Mann, N., Miller, B.T., Niemiller, K.D.K., Smallwood, K. & Hardy, J. 2023b. The Crystal-Wonder Cave System: a new hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the southern Cumberland Plateau of south-central Tennessee, USA. Diversity 15: 801. doi:10.3390/d15070801
- Page, G. 2021. Troglofauna of Van Buren and White County: a survey of four caves in the mideastern Cumberland Plateau. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. 18 pp.
- Peck, S.B. 1995. The cave fauna of Alabama. Part II: The insects. National Speleological Society Bulletin 57: 1–19.
- Peck, S.B. & Lewis, J.J. 1978. Zoogeography and evolution of the subterranean invertebrate faunas of Illinois and southeastern Missouri. National Speleological Society Bulletin 40: 39–63.
- Reeves, W.K., Jensen, J.B. & Ozier, J.C. 2000. New faunal and fungal records from caves in Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 62: 169–179. https://caves.org/wp-content/uploads/Publications/JCKS/v62/v62n3-Reeves.pdf. details
- Trumbore, L.E., Reynolds, R.J., Thomas, S.C., Orndorff, W., Cramphorn, B., Gladstone, N.S., Harden, C.W., Lewis, J.J., Milne, M.A., Ober, K.A., Shear, W.A., Stephen, C.D.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2024. Cave biodiversity of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 86: 13–24. doi:10.4311/2022LSC0116
- Wakefield, K.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2012. Obligate subterranean fauna of Carter State Natural Area, Franklin County, Tennessee. Speleolobiology Notes 4: 24–28.
- Webb, D.W., Taylor, S.J. & Krejca, J.K. 1993. The biological resources of Illinois caves and other subterranean environments. Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois, USA. 143 pp.
- Zigler, K.S., Niemiller, M.L., Stephen, C.D.R., Ayala, B.N., Milne, M.A., Gladstone, N.S., Engel, A.S., Jensen, J.B., Camp, C.D., Ozier, J.C. & Cressler, A. 2020. Biodiversity from caves and other subterranean habitats of Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 82: 125–167. doi:10.4311/2019LSC0125
This account was last revised 28 August 2026.
How to cite this account
Spelobia tenebrarum (Aldrich, 1897). Cave Biology Data Portal, account SP-0914. https://cavebiology.org/species/spelobia-tenebrarum/ (accessed 18 October 2026).
Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.
Spotted something wrong on this page? Report a correction. Accounts are compiled from many sources and corrections from people who know the group are the most useful email we get.