Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i have discovered eight new moth species in the genus Hyposmocoma on three islands within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, species found nowhere else in the world. Announcement of the new species was made in October through an article published in Zootaxa, a journal for zoological taxonomists.
The co-authors of the paper, Patrick Schmitz, PhD, and Daniel Rubinoff, PhD, believe these newly discovered species may be descendants of species that colonized the Hawaiian archipelago more than 5 million years ago, before Kaua‘i – the oldest of the Main Hawaiian Islands – emerged.
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are remnants of islands that at one time rose to 3,000 feet or more in elevation and supported drastically different and more diverse terrestrial plants and animals than are found on the mostly low-lying islands and atolls today.
The oldest atoll, Kure, is some 29.8 million years old.
“This is a great snapshot of species endemism, one that indicates how species have evolved on islands throughout the whole archipelago over time,” said Rubinoff. “We are continuing our research now, but it is possible that the ancient ancestor of the now uniquely Hawaiian Hyposmocoma moths may have landed on a young Northwestern Hawaiian Island and evolved over millions of years into several lineages, which hopped down the island chain, spawning a diversity of species.”
Hyposmocoma moths are found only in the Hawaiian Islands and include more than 315 different species. Along with picture-wing flies (Drosophila species), they are the most diverse animal genus within the state. Prior to this study, only one species of Hyposmocoma had been identified in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, H. neckerensis, described in 1926 from Mokumanamana.
