Perhaps the weirdest are cave crickets. Cave crickets are spindly, spider-like insects very different to your average backyard cricket. They can\u2019t chirp and are flightless. Because they can\u2019t travel long distances, all of Australia\u2019s species are endemic \u2013 that is, they\u2019re found nowhere else.<\/p>\n
When the pioneering entomologist Aola Richards<\/a> retired in the 1980s, it was thought Australia only harboured 23 cave cricket species and knowledge of these creatures languished. But in our recent research<\/a>, we found three new species \u2013 with more to come. One was named to honour Richards, and another uses Gundungurra language in a first for Western scientific naming.<\/p>\n An undescribed cave cricket species in the genus Speleotettix from the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne. Underground room service<\/p>\n The long legs and antennae of cave crickets mean that some people mistake them for spiders, but these animals are harmless.<\/p>\n As their common name suggests, cave crickets thrive in cool, dark and humid environments such as caves.<\/p>\n These crickets also play a critical ecological role in cave ecosystems \u2013 by leaving them. When night falls, these savvy scavengers leave the cave entrance and venture above ground to forage for food, chomping on vegetation, other insects and whatever they can get their six legs on.<\/p>\n Food is in short supply in caves. This is why cave crickets are so vital \u2013 they can be prey for other species, while the nutrients they bring back and poo out act as a crucial top-up for other species, such as bats. They\u2019re essentially cave room service.<\/p>\n How we found and named three new species<\/p>\n Despite the uniqueness of Australia\u2019s cave crickets, research has been minimal since the late Aola Richards retired. Richards was responsible for naming almost all cave cricket species in Australia and New Zealand. <\/p>\n We had a hunch there were more to find which hadn\u2019t yet been described, based on our fieldwork and observations by citizen scientists. <\/p>\n We worked with experienced cavers to collect crickets from the entrances of caves and abandoned mineshafts in Victoria and New South Wales.<\/p>\n In the lab, we examined dozens of specimens in detail. By comparing their physical characteristics with species already known to science, we were able to find three different types of cave cricket in the Speleotettix genus. <\/p>\n To make sure our identification was correct, we sequenced their DNA and compared it to known species. All three were distinct. Tiny differences in the base pairs of their DNA \u2013 often referred to as the building blocks of life \u2013 provide a reliable way of determining when one species is distinct from another.<\/p>\n Finding a name<\/p>\n Naming a species might sound simple. In reality, it\u2019s a long and complicated process with important implications for conserving our native species. Without a formal name, species aren\u2019t eligible for protection under Australia\u2019s environmental laws – effectively rendering them invisible.<\/p>\n We chose the names Speleotettix aolae, S. binoomea, and S. palaga.<\/p>\n The first species was named to acknowledge Richards\u2019 huge contribution to our knowledge of cave crickets. In fact, several specimens of S. aolae were collected by Richards more than 60 years ago. These museum specimens proved essential in understanding where the new species were found.<\/p>\n Speleotettix aolae and S. palaga were collected from caves and mineshafts in Victoria, while S. binoomea is from the World Heritage-listed Jenolan Caves and surrounding cave systems in NSW. <\/p>\n The new species Speleotettix palaga sits deep inside a disused gold mine near Blackwood, Victoria. The name is Latin for gold ingot, alluding to the history of the site. First Gundungurra word in a species name<\/p>\n The Gundungurra people are the Traditional Custodians of the Jenolan Caves. <\/p>\n We named the species found in these and surrounding caves Speleotettix binoomea. Binoomea means \u201cdark places\u201d in Gundungurra, and is used by the Gundungurra people to refer to the Jenolan Caves. To select the name, we worked with Gundungurra Elder Aunty Sharyn Halls and the Jenolan Caves Reserve Trust.<\/p>\n The choice of name recognises the deep cultural link between this species, the Jenolan Caves, and their Traditional Custodians.<\/p>\n To our knowledge, this is the first time a Gundungurra word has been used in the the Western scientific naming process. <\/p>\n Speleotettix binoomea at Junction Cave in Wombeyan, New South Wales. Thousands of Australian species still without names<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/file-20260601-57-ab92ot.jpeg\")
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\n Reiner Richter\/iNaturalist<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/file-20260601-57-y3f4n7.jpg\")
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\n Paul George\/iNaturalist<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/file-20260601-57-6teiu2.JPG\")
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\n Helen Smith\/Australian Museum, Author provided (no reuse)<\/p>\n