Kahalu'u with Peter and the Quarantiners

   I had been looking forward to yesterday.  Peter and Marla were going to come south and we were going to snorkel at Kahalu'u.  We met on the street above the bay just before 9:30.  It was a lovely
day with a few clouds, not too hot.

A Loving pair of Yellow Margin Moray Eels with Baby Cleaner Wrasse  April 2020

     As we were saying our hellos, Peter spotted a large number of tiny blue butterflies in the grassy parking strip.  They were small enough that wings and all they would fit inside a dime. I assume that these were Blackburn's blue butterfly, Udara blacburni, also known as the Hawaiian blue butterfly.  This is the Hawaiian endemic that uses acacia species for a host plant.  It is natural to assume that with all of our introduced plants, there are likely to be suitable acacia species around Kailua.  From literature that dealt primarily with the Kamehameha butterfly, I had assumed that this species was limited to koa forests.  If our identification is correct, nothing could be further from the truth.

A Happy Red labrid Wrasse,  Kahalu'u april 2020

    Its pretty hard for us to see a new butterfly, but Sandra and I had seen one just the day before on our morning walk.  In a shrub down on Marlin we spotted a small butterfly, about 1 3/4 inch wing span, with yellow, gray and black and white markings.  We had fun chasing it through our neighbor's shrubs to get a few quick looks.  Back at Casa Ono we identified this motley beauty as Vanessa cardui, The Painted Lady Butterfly.   The painted lady is the most common butterfly in the world, due in large part to its adaptability and its ability to make its way across oceans. My speculation is that this is the butterfly that made it across the Pacific to Hawaii and evolved over millions of years into V. tameamea.  Whichever butterfly made the journey ever so long ago, it did not persist, at least past the Polynesian invasion 1500 years ago.  Hence, like all but the Kamehameha and blackburn's blue, the Painted Lady is regarded as one of Hawaii's introduced species.  And it is now on our list.  Two life butterflies in two days, not bad.

Pink Tail Triggerfish,  Kahalu'u April 2020

   After admiring the tiny blue butterflies, Marla left to shop at the KTA in the Keahou Shopping

Plaza and Peter and I were soon in the water.

   We had timed the high tide so entry wasn't a problem.  For most of the time we were swimming there were only two to four others in the bay.  Perhaps as a result of the small numbers of swimmers, the fish at Kahalu'u seem especially friendly.  There is a pair of lined butterfly, big as your dinner plate, that follow us around.  Peter suspects that somebody must be feeding them.  This would explain the other friendly fish, as well.

   Almost immediately, I saw a dragon wrasse and a short distance away Peter saw two of these curious juveniles.  Shortly after that, I took notice of a tiny juvenile cleaner wrasse.  Like an inch long piece of shiny blue ribbon, he was darting around an opening in an Evermann's coral.  I looked closer and saw two large yellow margin moray eels poke their noses out from opposite sides of this opening.  As the tiny cleaner serviced them, they slithered by one another, cheek to cheek.  All I could think of was a book about breeding lovebirds, "When two parrots bill and coo like this,  it soon means five fine babies like these."  I don't know if the man who penned that gushing phrase would be pleased that it was applied to Flotsam and Jetsom (the eels that accompany the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid )   This was the first of the treasures we encountered on this morning of snorkeling. 

Honey Cowry  Kahalu'u  April 2020

   This was to be a great day for cone shells.  Shortly after the eels I turned over a cone hoping for a cone shell hermit crab.  Instead, there was a snail inside.  When I got home, I was able to detect his siphon protruding from the narrow end of the aperture.  Where there is the siphon, can the stinger be far behind?

    Tiring of the cone shell, I looked for Peter and found him photographing a trio of red labrid wrasses.  As he moved aside, I dodged in and got the nice pictures you see here.  Like cone shell hermit crabs, I find it impossible to tire of these quick moving little fish with their bright candy cane
coloration.

   A handsome pinktail triggerfish hovered close by, virtually insisting on having his picture taken.  I failed to take the flash off.  The water seemed pretty clear, but when the photo came out there were a few gray blots from light reflecting off debris.  I took care of the most egregious with the clone brush tool.  Do you like the result?

Cone Shell Hermit Crab  Kahalu'u April 2020

    As I tooled along I saw a curious cowry deep in a coral opening.  This was almost certainly an unoccupied shell.  See how the shell is weathered and covered with debris?  Clearly it has not been given a regular nightly cleaning by the mantle of the cowry snail. I nabbed a few pictures and later compared them to the pictures in Hoover and Severns.  This was almost certainly a honey cowry and it was my first one.

    As I said a paragraph or two above, this was the day for cone shells.  I found another with a cone shell hermit crab showing his eyes and the tiniest amount of leg.  I waited for more.  When this was not forthcoming, I plucked him from his niche and put him on top of a coral.  After the lined butterflies and a saddle

"Have you seen Baggins?"

wrasse gave him the once over, the crab emerged and I nabbed this fine picture. I just can't get tired of this orange and yellow beauty.  The good news for you, is that this crab is really common at Kahalu'u.  Look at the cone shells in coral niches and you are sure to find one or two.

   Twenty feet away in a different coral, I found a bigger cone shell with an eponymous crab. Commensurate with the size of his shell, this was a bigger crab, possibly the biggest cone shell hermit crab I have seen, and he probably represents the breeding stock.  The bull goose hermit, as it were.

   Now you might think that this was enough goodies and thrills for one snorkel, but perhaps the biggest treat was yet to come.  Just before I saw the large cone shell hermit, I saw a Hebrew cone with his nose buried in the sand at the base of a coral.  I thought about excavating him , but knowing that in the process he might well become escargot mort, I settled for a picture of him buried

The Hebrew Cone hunting on the sandy flat.

away for the day.

   A bit further on, after the large cone shell hermit, I ran across another Hebrew cone.  In this instance, the shell was fully exposed on a thin layer of reef sand.  Closer examination revealed that this was a live cone shell hunting in the middle of the day.  Note his siphon protruding from the the leading, tapered end of the shell.  The siphon enables the cone shell snail to smell for prey, much like the Black Riders were smelling for hobbits as Frodo and his companions made their escape to the Buckland Ferry.  The carnivorous snail is no Black rider; it is the way of nature that he hunts for tiny invertebrates in the sand of the reef.

    I had never seen a cone shell hunting in the wild.  Back in the day, Sandra and I collected a couple cone shell snails and brought them back to the aquarium on the lanai at Alii Villas.  After the sun went down, the cone shell snail would extend his siphon and cruise around the tank looking for dinner.  We always threw them back the following morning and there are still plenty of these

Peter photographs the eels while working up an appetite

fascinating hunters in the bay.  The thing is, you have to be extraordinarily lucky to see them hunting.

   After the swim, Peter and Marla came for a short visit.  In these days of quarantining, we had to take extreme measures for the safety of all.  We put them at the far end of an eight foot table and took turns pitching slices of salami and hunks of white cheddar, which like eager young sea lions, they caught on the fly.  We even filled a bota bag with Lagunitas IPA and squirted it from some significant distance, Peter adroitly catching the arcing stream in his mouth.  Following this unusual meal we pitched the dishes off the lanai into the neighbors yard.  And like the three little pigs (plus one) we all lived happily ever after.

    See you on the beach, so long as you stay six feet away.

jeff

Can't get enough of them candy colored fish!

This past week witnessed the passing of Jack Randall, Dean of Ichthyologists and friend to the fish watchers of Hawaii.   We are all diminished by his passing.  Let's hope that Jack is diving in a calm sea surrounded by heavenly fishes.  God bless ya, Dr. Randall.