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