Category:Ayalon Cave

English: The Ayalon cave is a limestone cave in central Israel, located in a quarry about 4 km southeast of Ramla, and with almost 2.800 m length the third largest cave, and second largest limestone cave, in Israel. The cave is closed to the public, for bearing an unique ecosystem based on chemoautotrophy and comprising at least three aquatic crustacean and three terrestrial arthropod species endemic to the cave. In addition, the carcasses of about 30 scorpions of Akrav israchanani, belonging to the new family Akravidae, were found. Their species went extinct between 1960 and 1991, apparently due to the water table falling about 12 meters, which disturbed the ecosystem considerably. The cave is still under threat of drying out, as groundwater is still pumped off, resulting in a continuing fall of the water table. The crustacean Typhlocaris ayyaloni is the only Ayalon cave species listed as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, although the threat applies to all endemic species of the cave.