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HURRICANE - Researchers say they have discovered a new type of albino millipede in the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.
It is the second such discovery for cave specialists Kyle Voyles and J. Judson Wynne in their search for invertebrates in the monument.
The two collected specimens in caves there two years ago after Voyles wrote a proposal to survey and inventory caves on the monument.
Last year the duo announced their samples yielded the discovery of a new genus of cricket. Now, they say they have a new genus of millipede.
Millipedes are generally found in leaf litter, but the cave where the eyeless, albino millipede was found is in a barren area with no leaf litter within 30 miles.
''We found two millipede species in two caves on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon,'' Voyles said. ''Now we know it's a new genus.''
A genus is a classification that must contain one or more species.
Voyles said other finds, which include new species of spider, cricket, barklouse and beetle, raise more questions than they answer.
Also, 12 new caves have been found on the monument property.
Wynne said the discovery of the new genus of cricket and millipede shows there is still much to learn.
''Caves have been overlooked for decades,'' Wynne said.
The discoveries have driven interest in what is still out there in the remote and rugged monument, located in a remote strip of land on the Utah-Arizona border.
The monument was founded in January 2000 and is jointly managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. It covers more than 1,600 square miles of land on what is known as the Arizona Strip. The area's deep canyons, mountains and red rock buttes are cut off from the rest of Arizona by the Grand Canyon at its south border.