Some backround:

I found a cluster (maybe about 50 or so) of dark pink (salmon or maybe coral colored?) eggs on an Acacia koa  leaf – not technically a leaf (petiole? phyllode?), I know,  but for lack of a better term that is what I am calling it.  I was actually hoping they were koa bug eggs, but when I showed them to Steve he immediately recognized them as Lepidoptera eggs (too small for Coleotichus blackburniae).  He suggested I collect the eggs, take them back to Oahu, and try to rear to the adult form.   This is what I have been doing for the last month.  The eggs hatched on March 30th or possibly the night of the 29th.  I’ve reared them on Formosa koa the whole time up until today. They seemed to prefer eating the flowers and not the leaves.  I tried to take photos every 5 to 10 days – once again I struggled to get decent pics, but I guess they came out OK.  This morning I noticed that there were about 5 or 6 caterpillars lying motionless under the paper towel on the bottom of the cage, and when I checked again at noon, two had turned into pupae.  Another 5 or 6 were lying on top of the paper towels as well.  I’m a little bummed out because I leave for Okinawa on Saturday for three weeks, and I’m afraid the adults will not emerge (eclose?) before I leave.  I’m probably going to have to leave the pupae with a coworker or something.

Here are the pics (unfortunately I never took a photo of the eggs) – if anyone out there knows the species I would greatly appreciate your input!

I’m trying to rear this guy out to an adult, so if I’m successful, I’ll update this post with some pics of the moth.

The Green Sphinx of Kauai

(Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

E. H. Bryan, Jr.

Bernice P. Bishop Museum

Honolulu, Hawaii

(Submitted for publication August, 1961)

A specimen of a sphingid moth believed to be Tinostoma smaragditis (Meyrick), the famous “green sphinx of Kauai,” was collected at Halemanu, near Kokee, on July 7, 1961, by Kenneth E. Gouveia (fig. 1).  While a student at the Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Mr. Gouveia had learned of this rare and elusive moth and had been watching for it many years.  So when he saw a greenish-winged sphinx moth resting on the lid of a garbage can on the side of Kokee Road, he promptly captured it and later brought it to the Bishop Museum to make sure of its identity.

This is the second known specimen of this moth.  The first one had been taken more than 65 years ago by ladies of the Gay family at their mountain home at Makaweli, Kauai, and given to Dr. R. C. L. Perkins.  It was made the type of a new species by Edward Meyrick; the description and a colored plate appear in his paper on Hawaiian Macrolepidoptera [Fauna Hawaiiensis 1(2):191, 1899].  He remarked at the time that “this example has lost one antenna and the apical half of the other, and also both posterior legs; it is therefore impossible to determine its generic position…It is a remarkable and beautiful species and its fair captors might earn additional praise by discovering further specimens, and enabling its affinities to be accurately ascertained.”  Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan, in their huge monograph on the Sphingidae of the world, described a new genus for this single specimen which is preserved in the British Museum (Natural History), London.

As years went by, various entomologists tried to discover more specimens of this moth.  B. Preston Clark, whose extensive sphingid collection lacked only a few of all the described species, employed J. August Kusche to make a special search for the green sphinx.  According to Zimmerman’s account (INSECTS OF HAWAII 7:429, 1958) Kusche went to Kauai in 1919 and searched in the area from Kokee to to Kaholuamano without success, returning again to renew his efforts in 1920.  No green sphinxes were caught, although he reported them flying about the Metrosideros trees always too high up for him to capture, and that he had collected, but failed to rear caterpillars which he considered to be those of the moth.  However, Kusche’s accounts were not always reliable, and it is rather doubtful that he saw either the adults or caterpillars of the green sphinx.  As late as 1928 Clark was still offering one hundred dollars for a good specimen of the moth.  On his death his collection, still minus the green sphinx, was left to Carnegie Institute Museum, Pittsburg.

Superficially, the Kokee specimen differs from the type in details of coloration.  The main differences are the absence of the dark spot on each forewing, with the apical margin only very narrowly brown; except for a basal purplish blotch on the forewing, the undersides of both wings are green instead of purplish ochreous; and the abdomen is green instead of purple fuscous, with no trace of orange on the dorsum as indicated for T. smaragditis by Zimmerman.

(For more recent info – check out the listing at the ICUN Red List Site)

Anyway, these shows have got me thinking about about cryptozoological arthropods.  I couldn’t really think of any legendary spiders or insects, so I looked up the subject on the internet.  A quick search yielded a list of cryptids provided by the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club.  Out of a total of 724 cryptids, only three are what they call “insects.”  These are as follows: 1. Giant Centipede (USA) 2. Giant Spider (Various) 3. Madascan Hawk Moth.  Under “invertebrates” they also listed a Deep Sea Spider (S. Pac. Oc.), but that was the only other arthropod, so that makes a total of 4 out of 724 for a whopping 0.5%.  This seems strange since a conservative estimate of arthropod species puts them at 80% of all known animal species.  Surely there should be more stories of mythical insects and other exoskeletal beasties flaoting around out there.  I’ll have to do some more searching. 

One reason for the disparity between the number of insect/arthropod cryptids vs. other animals could be size.  Since the laws of physics, at least as we currently understand them, constrain arthropods from becoming collosal, perhaps stories of huge bugs are just too unbelievable.  I think the largest known terrestrial arthropod is the coconut crab.  They can be disturbingly large, but even they have their limits.  This is an interesting image of a cocount crab – supposedly taken at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam (although Snopes.com reports that it was taken on Christmas Island). 

These crabs are huge, no doubt, but my personal opinion is that this image has been faked.  First of all, it seems improbable that a crab of that size would exist on an inhabited ilsand.  They are considered a delicacy, and where they coexist with people, they usually end up on a dinner plate before they can huge.  Even on the Island of Diego Garcia, where some of the largest coconut crabs in the world exist (B.I.O.T. law on D.G. makes it illegal to catch and eat them), you do not see coconut crabs of this size.  A coworker of mine did a study on the crabs there, so I could probably back this up with data if I had too.  Secondly, a crab this size would probably be too heavy to be supported by a standing trash can – in reality I think it would tip over from the weight of the crab. 

But getting back to the insects…there may not be too many tales of giant bugs roaming the earth, but I’m guessing there is no shortage of extremely rare insects that have been seen only once or a maybe a few times, or sightings of insects that are presumed extinct.  A particular species that comes to mind in Hawaii is the Green Sphinx of Kauai or Fabulous Green Sphinx, Tinostoma smaragditis (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae).  Only about a dozen specimens have ever been found, all from the Kokee region of Kauai.  The larvae have never been found, and its host plants have never been identified.  I am particularly interested in this moth because there is a good chance sometime later this year or early 2010 I will be participating in some surveys for endangered Hawaiian picture wing flies in Kokee.  You can bet I’ll also have my eyes peeled for the Green Sphinx.

View of Lualualei Valley from Mikilua exclosure trailhead.

On a previous hike through this area I saw an endemic Lycaenid, Udara blackburni (Blackburn’s Blue), so I brought a camera along with hopes to get some pics.  The bottom left portion of the next photo is approximate area where I saw it…

Beginning of Mikilua exclosure trail.

Unfortunately, on this occasion I did not see U. blackburni, but I did take some pictures of Tmolus echion, the Larger Lantana Butterfly.  This is also a Lycaenid, but it is not native to Hawaii – it was brought into the state from Mexico in 1902 to help control lantana.