Inside a 25m-Deep Tunnel, Researchers Found an Unidentified Creature on the Walls

A small Greek island has just added a new creature to science, and the setting sounds almost made for a mystery: a dark artificial tunnel, 25 metres deep, on the slopes of Mount Vigla. When researchers entered, they found cave crickets clinging to the walls and overhanging surfaces.

The species has now been identified as Dolichopoda balrogi, a newly described cave cricket from the island of Kastellorizo. The name comes from the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings, but the real animal is harmless — and important because it shows how even man-made underground spaces can hide life that science has not yet recorded.