Abstract
A survey of the macroscopic invertebrate fauna of Coles Cave, the largest undisturbed cave in Barbados, found a community of at least 44 nonaccidental species. Most of the species are supported by scavenging on bat guano but at least 7 are predators and 1 is a parasitoid. The species richness is mostly terrestrial, for only 7 species were found in the aquatic stream community. Only a milliped seems to be cave-restricted, and few of the species are endemic to Barbados. Three have been introduced by man. The community shows little apparent niche separation and is generally composed of species that are normally forest litter-inhabitants. They mostly arrived at the island of Barbados by overwater dispersal since its emergence in the Pleistocene, and then moved to the cave habitat via the forest understory.
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