Say hello to one of only two native butterflies: the Kamehameha butterfly, Vanessa tameamea. This is the original pulelehua, named in honor of royalty, and claimed as the official state insect in 2009, thanks to the efforts of a group of students from Pearl Ridge Elementary. Even its egg, laid singly on the upper or lower sides of certain native nettles, looks regal - like a miniature monarch's crown. Once the caterpillars hatch, they do a fine job of munching away on their host plants, and the young instars will cut a distinctive crescent-shaped incision in the leaf, then flap it over in a mini-tent of protection. As they molt, they get spiky, and the final instar is quite the bumpy and spiny larva. As adults, they favor the sap of the native koa. But it would seem that there are less and less of these regal flyers, and researchers at UH Manoa want to find out why. So they have begun the Pulelehua Project. Funded by the DLNR, the project asks the public to submit photos of Vanessa tameamea eggs, chrysalis, caterpillars, and adult butterflies, along with the location of the sighting. By involving the public, scientists hope to get a more accurate mapping of the butterfly's distribution than they could do alone. Their website, http://www.KamehamehaButterfly.com, has identification aids and comparisons with look-alike butterflies, such as the Painted Lady and Red Admiral. Also included are photos of the native nettles that serve as host plants, including māmaki (Pipturus albidus), olonā (Touchardia latifolia), ōpuhe (Urera spp.) and ʻākōlea (Boehmeria grandis). So the next time you take a hike, keep your eyes peeled, and bring your camera. | |
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Birds of a feather flock together. And therein lies the problem for the koloa maoli, Anas wyvilliana. This endemic duck is endangered due to several factors, one of which is hybridization with feral mallards. Basically, the genes of the mallard are infiltrating the genes of the Hawaiian duck, causing "genetic extinction." To complicate the situation further, the hybrids are tough to distinguish from the real deal, making it hard to determine true population sizes and ranges. There is believed to be about 2,200 koloa maoli, with the majority on Kaua'i. Once abundant on all the major islands with the exception of Lana'i, by 1960's they were extirpated from all but Kaua'i. Captive breeding and release programs have brought them back to many islands, though those on Oahu are most likely hybrids. Both the male and female koloa maoli are mottled brown, and look a lot like female mallards. Males are a bit larger and a bit darker than the females, and have a greenish bill; females tend to be lighter in color, particularly on the head, and their bill color is more on the orangish side. They are denizens of wetlands, where they dabble the day away in search of aquatic invertebrates, molluscs, algae, small fish, and the like. Nesting occurs in dense vegetation (making them vulnerable to predation from mongooses, feral cats, and rats), primarily during the spring. Two to ten eggs are laid, and if we are lucky ducks, we'll have another clutch of Hawaiian ducks to grace our skies and waters.
This one is truly taking cover - in more ways than one. The collector sea urchin, Tripneustes gratilla, known locally as hawa'e maoli, makes a fashion statement by covering its spines with limu, bits of shell, or other marine debris. This masking, or covering behavior is not fully understood but may be a means of protection from the rolling abrasion of wave action, or perhaps the harmful affects of UV light. Native to Hawaiian waters as well as the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea, Tripneustes gratilla is found in shallow water down to about thirty meters, and can get to about five inches in test diameter. These guys are constant grazers, munching primarily on algae throughout the day and night. Good thing because these urchins have been recruited for an important job: taking the cover off of the corals in Kane'ohe Bay. Several invasive algae, including those in the genus Kappaphycus and Eucheuma denticulatum are blanketing the corals in a smothering embrace. Back in the 1970's, Kappaphycus species were intentionally introduced to bay for research and cultivation; these species produce kappa-carrageenan, which can be extracted and used in the food industry. Though the cultivation efforts were not successful, the algae was. As the seaweed spread, marching northward in the bay, efforts were made to remove it. Enter the Super Sucker, a marine vacuum used to hover up the alien goo. While thousands of pounds of algae were removed, it rebounded quickly. And that's where Tripneustes gratilla comes in. Researchers at the Anuenue Fisheries Research Center on Sand Island developed techniques to breed the sea urchins, 100,000 of which were placed on the reef to do what they do best: eat the algae that is left behind. And eat they do. According to Dr. Eric Conklin, the Nature Conservancy’s Hawai‘i marine science director: “On reefs where we have placed the urchins, algae re-growth after a year is about five percent....On reefs without urchins, algae can re-grow within six months.” The Conservancy, in tandem with the State Division of Aquatic Resources, plan on releasing 200,000 urchins in 2014. ʻAi ā manō!! Hailing from China, Korea, and Japan, the oriental flower beetle, Proteatia orientalis, is a hefty beetle, about the size of my upper thumb. Its attractive bronzy metallic sheen is splotched with white markings, and gives a hint that it is in the family of Scarab beetles, many of which sport metallic colors. It also claims membership in the subfamily Cetoniinae, also known as the flower chafers, a group of diurnal beetles that feed on nectar, pollen, sap, and some, like are guy here, on damaged fruit. On Guam, where it is widespread, it has been known to feed on the flowers of papaya, coconut, betel nut, mango and corn, and may damage the flowers of these trees, resulting in fewer fruit. Proteatia orientalis has been known on Oahu since 2002, and has since been identified on Maui, and just recently on the Big Island. Eggs are laid in the soil, where the grub, or larvae hatch and then pupate; as with all beetles, metamorphosis is complete, whereas true bugs undergo incomplete metamorphosis. The oriental flower beetle can be confused with the coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros, a major pest of coconut palms that was first seen in Honolulu in December of 2013.
Cunning, resourcefulness, and a certain disregard for the rules - all qualities that describe a Slytherin. Add to that the characteristic slink of the mongoose, and I think you'd agree that the Sorting Hat would have put this efficient and stealthy predator in the House known for its Dark Wizards. Brought to Hawaii Island in 1883 via Jamaica, the hope was that they would control the increasing rat populations in the sugar cane fields. And indeed they were efficient ratters, so, off they went, shipped to other plantations on O'ahu, Moloka'i, and Maui. But what lie beyond the cane fields? Lots of ground nesting birds and their delicious eggs. Being an opportunist, and with rats being nocturnal unless in great abundance, the mongooses strayed from the plantations. As early as the 1895 and into the early 1900's, newspaper articles chronicled the concerns and controversies over this dark wizard. The Hawaii Digital Newspaper Project contains a number of articles on the mongoose, including one from the Hawaiian Star in 1911 in which a Kaimuki woman hid out near her hen-house to determine what was causing the loss of her eggs:
"Presently a mongoose glided in emitting a peculiar whistle so efficacious in fascinating her chickens of immature growth but which has little effect on an egg. Approaching the eggs, it took one tenderly in its mouth and coiling its tail round another left the hen-house holding its head and tail high in the air and looking for all the world like a pair of spectacles. Having deposited the eggs in a space between the rocks of a stone wall bounding the premises it returned twice and secured the remainder of the eggs. The woman watched the proceedings entranced... when she had seen the last two eggs disappear she seemed to come to suddenly and when her husband returned related to him in detail what she had seen. He is now busy experimenting with an explosive which will go off on being jarred and which he intends injecting into some egg shells from which the contents have been removed. By this means he hopes to teach the marauding mongooses in his section a lesson they will never forget." With females producing up to three litters per year, with three pups per litter, mongoose populations quickly increased. Everything that moves is fair game for their supper (frogs, lizards, small mammals, birds, insects, slugs, snails) and they'll not hesitate to dine on some things that don't (fruit, plants, eggs). The nene, moli, and Newell's shearwater have been particularly hard hit by their maleficium. And it has been officially confirmed that they are now practicing their Dark Arts on Kaua'i. In May of 2012, a live mongoose was trapped at at the Marriott Kaua‘i Lagoons. And as Severus Snape warns us: "The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before." Today I hand over the authorship of the post to a seventh-grade student of mine, Chloe Loughridge. She has an on-going interest in the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, a native of Midway and the MHI. Her curiosity was sparked when she encountered some researchers looking for this member of the family Sepiolidae in the shallow waters off Oahu. Since then she has been rearing and studying this tiny wonder that is known for its remarkable ability to turn on a cloak of invisibility. In the deep of night, when shadows come out to haunt the beaches, and the ocean becomes a pool of never-ending darkness, a silent hunter glides soundlessly through midnight, moon-glossed waters. The vigilant predator settles gently on the sandy bottom of the sea while its eyes dilate and probe the darkness for its secrets. This little creature, the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, also known as Euprymna scolopes, is delicate, sensitive, and endemic to our islands. Although we don’t know all of its secrets, the small Bobtail Squid provides huge possibilities for scientists. Such a creature could be used to solve problems plaguing our world today, and it lives right in our own backyard. One of the squid’s more prominent characteristics is the fact that it "glows" in the dark, which is quite handy considering that it is nocturnal. The Bobtail Squid is able to use bioluminescent bacteria (Vibrio fischeri) to help it glow, thereby making it possible for the squid to erase its own shadow. Using a cavity on its underside, the squid sweeps in Vibrio fischeri from the ocean with the help of cilia, or small hair-like structures. The Bobtail Squid is able to cultivate these bacteria, which after reaching a certain concentration, begin to glow in the squid’s light organ. The squid can control the light intensity of its bio-flashlight simply by controlling the amount of oxygen that the bacteria in the light organ receive. This light organ is located near the ink sack of the squid, and the muscles in charge of controlling the amount of ink that the squid releases are also in charge of controlling the amount of light that the squid emits. In other words, the Bobtail Squid has a built-in, living flashlight on the underside of its belly. In this way, the Bobtail Squid simply blends into the starry canopy of night sky above, monitoring its light output to match the moonlight above so that it is practically invisible to any predator that may be on the hunt. It also is invisible to its own prey. Scientists from around the world are interested in this little creature’s symbiotic relationship with the bioluminescent bacteria Vibrio fischeri, and every year, researchers are sent to collect batches of Bobtail Squid from our very own waters. This is no surprise however, because the squid’s ability to cultivate and sustain such bacteria could be helpful in cancer research—bioluminescent bacteria like Vibrio fischeri could be used to mark cancer cells. By understanding the symbiotic relationship between the Bobtail Squid and its bacteria, we may also be able to understand more about our own relationships with the good bacteria in our bodies as well. So, really, protecting the Bobtail Squid is not just protecting another sea creature, but it is preserving and protecting future opportunities for ourselves.
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