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New albino millipede found in Grand Canyon cave
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 03/25/2007 01:30:58 AM MDT

HURRICANE - Researchers say they have discovered a new type of albino millipede in the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.
It is the second such discovery for cave specialists Kyle Voyles and J. Judson Wynne in their search for invertebrates in the monument.
The two collected specimens in caves there two years ago after Voyles wrote a proposal to survey and inventory caves on the monument.
Last year the duo announced their samples yielded the discovery of a new genus of cricket. Now, they say they have a new genus of millipede.
Millipedes are generally found in leaf litter, but the cave where the eyeless, albino millipede was found is in a barren area with no leaf litter within 30 miles.
''We found two millipede species in two caves on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon,'' Voyles said. ''Now we know it's a new genus.''
A genus is a classification that must contain one or more species.
Voyles said other finds, which include new species of spider, cricket, barklouse and beetle, raise more questions than they answer.
Also, 12 new caves have been found on the monument property.
Read on http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5517120

The millipede on the south side of the canyon is from Cathedral cave. This cave is owned by myself and three other NSS cavers (Doug Billings, John Norman, and Bob Winkler.) We've set it up as a private cave preserve, and we are actively soliciting researchers to do projects at Cathedral and Indian caves.

Our cave contains a Townsend Long-eared maturnity colony as well as usage of other bat species. We even have Javalina using Indian cave for nesting. We've had a litter of Javalina pups the last two years. Jut is leading the biological work. Jut and Kyle have been doing some good biology work in many of the caves in Northern Arizona. We should be seeing some interesting papers published from their work.

We also have Paleontological projects going on with Jim Mead at NAU, and Archaeological projects with Jim Brady at UC and his associates.

We would like to do some resistivity testing, or other void detection work at the ends of our caves. We would also like to do some more historical work at the caves since they have been visited since 1900, and are rich in historical resources.

We are always open to other scientific projects. Feel free to contact me if you are interested.

Tom