PULELEHUA A quarterly newsletter of the Butterfly Society of Hawaii Where Have All The Caterpillars Gone? Winter 2015 Your little guy/girl is there one day, the next day, and the next, and then it is gone. You search, with no success. What happened? A great many caterpillars are masters of camouflage, blending with the color and texture of its food plant. Some like the Swallowtail caterpillars look like bird droppings. Because hiding is essential to its survival, it eludes you. It may have chosen to relocate to a more secure hiding place to pupate. Birds Caterpillars and insects are an important source of food for other animals and insects. Plants are the foundation of the food chain, and the nutrients produced by plants provide food for animals that consume plants, and indirectly to animals that consume animals. Considering their desirability as food, hiding from predators helps keep caterpillars stay alive. Birds are big consumers of caterpillars, but a large percentage of their diet is insects. However, insects and spiders also eat them. crickets spiders lizards Some wasp and fly species lay their eggs on or in the caterpillars, and the larvae feed from within the caterpillar, gradually killing it. People who don’t understand the ecological role of caterpillars may use a pesticide or other method to kill them because they think of them as pests that are eating their plants. Make sure your neighbors know that these beneficial little helpers should be left alone. Some of these caterpillar consumers bring us as much pleasure as butterflies, and most of them play an important role in keeping the plant and animal world in balance. Many of them are instrumental in keeping the food chain going. Where do we come in? Try to have a broad selection of plants in your garden, particularly native plants, host plants and flowering nectar plants. This diversity will result in a matching variety of wildlife, including butterflies and caterpillars. Some may end up as a meal for another animal or insect, but many will survive to adulthood to carry on the primary job of pollinating our next food crop. Kamehameha Butterfly (pulelehua) In 2009 the Kamehameha butterfly was designated the official insect of Hawaii. It is one of only two endemic butterflies in Hawaii. The other is the Blackburn’s Blue. The host plant for the Kamehameha is the indigenous Mamaki, which is in dwindling supply. Mamaki is sometimes found as a cultivated crop, but generally is found under the canopy of rain forests on the Big Island, and not as often on Oahu. The plant is used for medicinal purposes, but over harvesting and human sprawl has eliminated much of it in the wild. It is hoped that the Kamehameha’s recognition would bring more efforts to protect this beautiful creature, but little has happened to date. If you are not familiar with Mamaki, come to our garden at Foster Garden for a “look see”. An appropriate quote from the Algonquin Indians (1854) Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.