The Kamehameha Butterfly

   Last week, as I was preparing for my display of Hawaiian butterflies at the Kailua Kona library, I ran into a stumbling block.  Sandra and I have seen relatively few species of butterflies and moths in

Dan Rubinoff working on his Rorschach blots. 

West Hawaii.  I believe the number is four, not counting the little gray moth that sneaks into the house and eats holes in my sweater.  Your probably wondering, "What the hell does he need a sweater for in Hawaii?"

  I had created paper mache models of three of the Kona four, monarch, black witch, Asian swallowtail and orange sulfur) and also the two endemics, Kamehameha and Blackburn's blue, which is also known as Hawaiian blue and Koa.  And also the gulf fritillary, which I knew people had seen on this island, although I had not been so lucky.  Yet.

    At this point I was flummoxed, stymied, if you will.  I'm still at work on a group of orange sulfur butterflies, but that ship will sail shortly, and then what will I do next?  I would really like to present butterflies that someone might see here on the Big island...there must be more than four.

  Sandra in front of dodonea and koa.  Can the butterflies be far behind?

   To solve this problem, I turned to the internet and found contact information for professors at UH Hilo and Manoa.  My questions were:  1. What butterflies and moths actually occur on the island of Hawaii that I can model for the display? and 2. Is it possible that I can see any of these butterflies and moths?

    First to write back was Bob Thomson from Manoa.  In a cordial reply, he said that he didn't know much about butterflies, but he knew just the man, Dan Rubinoff, also a professor at Manoa.  Off went an email to Dr. Rubinoff.

    As it turns out, Dan Rubinoff is a true specialist in butterflies.  He recommended the University of Hawaii Insect Museum, a real place, but also a digital site which he and his students have created.  At the digital museum, I not only found pictures of a few insects, but also a link to the Pulelehua Project, an effort to support the dwindling numbers of the Kamehameha butterfly.  If you haven't guessed,

A male Kamehameha butterfly.  Courtesy of the Pulelehua Project

pulelehua is Hawaiian for butterfly. 

   Trolling on you tube that evening, we happened upon this video starring the Kamehameha Butterfly and Dan Rubinoff:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a378SO6K2g

  Dan encouraged us to go to the Bird Park at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to look for the two endemic species.  He listed the plants that the blue employs as hosts, koa and dodonea   In the process, he pointed out something that I had an inkling about, but did not have firmly in my mind.
Very much like a given species of anemone fish has an obligatory relationship with one or two species of giant anemone, butterflies are usually tied to a single host species of plant.  They lay their eggs on that plant and  their caterpillars eat those leaves voraciously, subsequently becoming  butterflies

    Curiously, the butterflies themselves are dainty eaters.  They don't have mouth parts, per se, but

Our kamehmeha butterfly rests on a māmaki leaf. A classic host plant.

rather a proboscis through which they suck up nutrition.  The blue eats various flower nectars while the Kamehameha sucks koa sap.  

   Next time I need to talk some trash, I'm going to say," Aw, ya mudda sucks koa sap."

    This relationship between butterflies and their hosts has developed over a very long period of time.  Unfortunately, the butterflies use species of plants that frequently are not treasured as ornamental plants in one's yard.  Aka weeds.  Hence, as civilization has encroached on the wild forests and meadows, supplanting these with asphalt, houses and yards of grass and beds of roses, we have been destroying butterfly habitat, specifically the plants that feed caterpillars.   It isn't only the Kamehameha butterfly that is affected in this way.

The Kamehameha looks down at us

   On the other hand, some butterflies employ a host that us humans find desirable.  One of these is the gulf fritillary.  That butterfly lays its eggs on passion fruit, known in these very Sandwich Islands as  lilikoi.  The gulf frit is native to the Caribbean and Florida, but happily lives in Hawaii, home of passion orange guava.  Is POG the state beverage?  If not, it ought to be. Next time you are plucking a lilikoi for your evening beverage, look under the leaves for some tiny caterpillars.  That ought to whet your appetite!

   Appreciating the opportunity to see a new species, one so endearing that it bears the crown of the Hawaii State Insect, Sandra and I set off yesterday morning for the volcano.  Since there is so much trouble on the saddle road with the thirty meter telescope protest, we took the southern route through Na'alehu, arriving at the bird park about 9:30 in the morning.  

   We had studied both the butterflies and the host plants on the internet; at the beginning of the trail we identified both koa and dodonea.  

kahili ginger in HVNP.  Photo Sandra Gray

    Setting off on the 1.5 mile loop, we were immediately in the presence of a large black witch moth which zipped up and down the trail.  Another hundred yards up the trail and we saw a fast moving orange butterfly.  It was 20% smaller and a darker shade of orange than the monarch, which,being the common orange butterfly of Casa Ono, serves as our standard.  It flew around us for a minute and then landed on a tree about ten feet away.  I was within the close focus of my binoculars, so my sighting was eyes only.  Sandra was a few feet behind me and was able to get an excellent look through the Swarofskis. 

   I got a wonderful look at the underside of the back wing.  If you are not used to identifying orange butterflies of the genus Vanessa, this constitutes a surprise. In all these Vanessa butterflies, that back underside wing looks like a set of feathers, mostly in shades of brown and gray.  This Kamehameha had some blue occuli.  In its own way rather attractive. There are four other members of the genus vanessa on Hawaii.  Go to the Pulelehua Project site and look at "look alike species"  google images has even prettier pictures of these species in resting position, that is, with the wings folded up, showing off that back outer wing.

A close up of the kahili ginger blossom.

  We then went an hour without seeing another butterfly.  We did see a few birds, Kalij pheasant, northern cardinal and white eye.  We don't need to leave our yard to notch those species.  Luckily the weather was pleasant, the trail was easy and the company was excellent.  We walked  a little over a mile in that hour and were nearing the end of the trail when we saw our second orange butterfly.  This Kamehameha was far more cooperative, flying quite close to us, showing off the brown hairs that extend like a fan over the upper wings.   

    He lit on a leaf about five feet away.  Sandra forced the camera into my hands and I started snapping away and moving closer.  He stayed put for about half a minute and  I got within about three feet.  Given the quality of my pictures, I would have been better off just watching this magnificent and rare creature.  But if you look, there can be no question but that this was a Kamehameha butterfly.  

  After the last photo, he took off and circled for a short while and then perched face down on a branch. I think that while I was nabbing one more picture he was checking me out.  Having heard that my mother sucks koa sap, he might have been considering giving me a the taste test with his tiny proboscis.

Hawaii Coat of Arms.  Kahili on the right

   Following our butterfly hike, we went into the national park and poked around some spots that looked promising for the blue butterfly.  We had no luck with the butterfly but did see a gazillion of these fancy flowers, the kahili ginger.  As you may recall, a kahili is the standard carried by the attendant of an ali'i, basically a long staff surmounted with a cone of feathers.  Curiously, the most magnificent stands of kahili ginger were out on the highway, not in the park.

    A quick note on the park.  In spite of the cessation of eruptions, a surprising number of things remain closed.  This includes the Jagger Museum and the Thurston Lava Tubes.   The latter is associated with an area good for birding and it might have yielded on of those blue butterflies.  Maybe next time.

jeff

     Just before we left on our trip to the volcano, I received a reply from my UH Hilo correspondent.  Patrick Hart added a beautiful black and white butterfly, the citrus swallowtail, to my to do list.  This

Citrus Swallowtail  Papilio demodicus

magnificent butterfly, which hails from sub-Saharan Africa, is now seen  by Dr. Hart around Hilo.  This butterfly uses citrus trees as its host plant.  Hence the wikipedia site devoted to the species is more about controlling than attracting it. this black beauty can lay its eggs on my lemon tree whenever it wants!

   Encouragingly, Dr. Hart noted that the Kamehameha butterfly is seen in Hilo, though infrequently.  The city fathers need  to plant more koa and mamaki in the public gardens.  Is it possible to encourage home gardeners in the use of these species?

   Both Patrick and Dan Rubinoff encouraged me to leave a light on at night in hopes of attracting various moths.  You can look forward to a model of the oleander hawk moth, which is reputed to be common in Kona.  
   

And what sort of garden do you come from, my dear?   Why I don't come from any garden.

The Kilauea Iki Overlook  Photo by Sandra Gray