This collection represents animals and other samples taken from underground voids such as caves, calcretes and gravels. The collection's samples are acquired from both above or below the water surface.
The Subterranean Biology Collection exists mostly as a holding collection - the samples await processing or description before they are redistributed into the relevant permanent collection (Arachnology, Crustacea, Entomology, Fishes, Marine Invertebrates, Minerals, Molluscs).
The collection includes some very unusual organisms such as a 14 millimetre long crustacean that represents a class of life (an extremely rare find) previously undiscovered in the southern hemisphere, and the first subterranean diving beetles found in Western Australia.
