As a matter of fact, The Cave Life of Oklahoma and Arkansas comes out in January 2012. I am one of three authors and the book is loaded with great photographs of rare cave life.

Cheers,
Dante

Later-J

Really enjoyed seeing the E. latitans from the type locality. How are you getting the shots with the black backgrounds?

Sam

Here is more information on the spring nets from Randy Gibson of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service:

Commercially available nets:

Wildco – larger mesh size and rectangular opening:

https://wildco.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=drift+net&osCsid=d4f097385a6ae13564d890e3a5c7b1d2

Bioquip – smaller mesh size available, smaller square opening, and cheaper:

http://www.bioquip.com/Search/DispProduct.asp?itemnum=4250A

More info from Randy, “I have found what seems to work well for both the nets above is to glue the following parts : 2 ” male threaded adapter, reduce with a 1.5 to 2″ bushing, and a short piece of 1.5″ pvc pipe (schedule 40). The pipe can be slid into the end of the net and attached with a stainless steel hose clamp. Then build the buckets as shown with 2″ parts.”

See Randy Gibson’s sketch above on making a collection bucket for a spring net.

Thanks for the comments on the images. The beetles can be difficult to shoot as they typically don’t stop moving around.

Cheers & Thanks,
Dante

Thanks for the comments! The spring nets are called exactly that. New designs are really being ironed out all the time. They can be made by hand very easily. You can buy the prefabricated plankton trawling nets or just buy the fabric. The diameter of the fabric’s mesh openings needs to match what you hope to filter out. For example, you may want a smaller diameter mesh so you can collect microcrustaceans as well as macro fauna. If all you want are isopods, amphipods, and larger, you can use fish netting, which can be bought online by the square yard. Often, the same supply companies that sell trawling nets/plankton sampling nets/ etc. sell the finer mesh fabrics. The nets in the images have a PVC framework at their mouth which is simple to build and very inexpensive. A heavier material can be sewn around the PVC and to the mesh netting for support and strength. The collecting cup at the end of the net is a wider diameter PVC segment with the mesh glued to the end so water can pass through. Metal ring clamps hold the collecting cup to the mesh body of the structure. As you use smaller and smaller mesh diameters, you need to make the nets longer and longer so that the water pressure in the net doesn’t get to a point where it is crushing whatever is captured. The nets in the images were roughly 3 feet long, perhaps 4, and they had a mesh size fine enough to collect ostracods. The seams can be double sewn for strength down the sides of the nets. If I can find information online for prefabricated spring nets, I’ll post the urls.

Cheers,
Dante