Insects of Papahanaumokuakea: Diversity, conservation, and invasion

Stretching 1,500 miles to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands, Papahanaumokuakea’s small islets, atolls, and sandbars represent 30-million years of geologic history and are home to unique and fragile ecosystems. Compared to the resident megafauna, the insects of Papahanaumokuakea are understudied if broadly surveyed, at equal if not greater risk of extinction, and perhaps more challenging to conserve. In addition to their intrinsic value, given their extreme isolation and geologic age, these insect communities may also offer important insight into evolutionary and ecological patterns in island ecosystems beyond those elucidated in the 5-million year history of the main Hawaiian Islands. In this talk, we consider threats to Papahanaumokuakea’s insect communities such as alien invasion and climate change, the unique challenges managers face trying to conserve such isolated insect communities, as well as some recent phylogenetic studies of an endemic genus of case-building moth, Hyposmocoma (Lepidoptera: Cosmopterigidae) that suggest how little we know and how much we have to lose if we fail.