BAHLOUL, Djebel-os Siraj (Grotte)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Lindberg's cave at Bahloul (note 1) are ancient man-made mines (note 2), which are dug into the ferrugineous Palaeozoic limestone (note 3) and conglomerate at Jabalussaraj (note 4). They are said to connect (by a fabulous subterranean tunnel) to Amir / Emir Habibollah / Habibullah's castle, about a kilometre away. CAVE DESCRIPTION: A moist, ascending adit (man-made gallery) with dark sections features a soil covered floor and some bat guano, was followed for about 25 m to a point where collapse, ascribed to a recent earthquake, blocked the way onwards. CAVE CLIMATE: The temperature in the air of the adit was 20°C, in the entrance 25°C on 25th July 1957. CAVE LIFE: Bat guano indicates Chiroptera. LINDBERG (1958: 118) reports to have collected Isopoda, Chilopoda, Psocida, Diptera (Phlebotomida) Lepidoptera, Acaria, and –from guano– Collembola, Coleoptera (larval stage), Pseudoscorpionida, and Acaria. JUBERTHIE & DECU (2001: 1746, 1747) list Arachnida: Acari terrestria: Uropodidae: Tichouropoda lindbergi Cooreman, collected from bat guano; Insecta: Coleoptera: Pterostichinae: Laemostenus rigrevanensis Coffait.Lindberg's cave at Bahloul (note 1) are ancient man-made mines (note 2), which are dug into the ferrugineous Palaeozoic limestone (note 3) and conglomerate at Jabalussaraj (note 4). They are said to connect (by a fabulous subterranean tunnel) to Amir / Emir Habibollah / Habibullah's castle, about a kilometre away. CAVE DESCRIPTION: A moist, ascending adit (man-made gallery) with dark sections features a soil covered floor and some bat guano, was followed for about 25 m to a point where collapse, ascribed to a recent earthquake, blocked the way onwards. CAVE CLIMATE: The temperature in the air of the adit was 20°C, in the entrance 25°C on 25th July 1957. CAVE LIFE: Bat guano indicates Chiroptera. LINDBERG (1958: 118) reports to have collected Isopoda, Chilopoda, Psocida, Diptera (Phlebotomida) Lepidoptera, Acaria, and –from guano– Collembola, Coleoptera (larval stage), Pseudoscorpionida, and Acaria. JUBERTHIE & DECU (2001: 1746, 1747) list Arachnida: Acari terrestria: Uropodidae: Tichouropoda lindbergi Cooreman, collected from bat guano; Insecta: Coleoptera: Pterostichinae: Laemostenus rigrevanensis Coffait.