News

After all this… Makauwahi Cave Reserve still thrives!


2020 Vision


Sister Sites


Coping with Change


Happy New Year!


Come Fly with Us!


Open Every Day


One of the “20 Best”


Newsletter Archive

Fossil Beetle-mania at the Cave

September 17, 2015

Dr. Nick Porch sifts Makauwahi Cave sediments for fossil insects, which are remarkably well-preserved in the site. (photo by Alec Burney)

Makauwahi Cave is now the site of the very first Hawaiian insect species to be described from fossil specimens. In “Reassembling a lost lowland carabid beetle assemblage (Coleoptera) from Kauai, Hawaiian Islands” published in the current issue of Invertebrate Systematics, experts name seven new species of large beetles in the genus Blackburnia, which includes many living beetles of Hawaii, some of which were also found in the cave sediments.

Authors Jim Liebherr and Nick Porch (whom some of you have met in past summers when he worked with us on a National Geographic-sponsored project at the cave) point to some interesting parallels with our finds in the cave, published in past decades, concerning plants, birds, and snails of the past. Although the Kaua`i lowlands have fairly low biological diversity in these beetles and many other groups today, with most surviving species in the highest and most remote parts of the island, the south shore of Kauai had a very diverse beetle assemblage a few centuries ago.

Nick points out in his excellent presentations that this is just a beginning for the study of Makauwahi Cave fossil insects: there are many more species from many groups represented. Most of these apparently went extinct in recent centuries, perhaps from predation by introduced rats, chickens, and ants, perhaps combined with the effects of the transformation of the lowlands from forest to croplands and thickets of invasive plants.

The names of the new beetles maybe reveal a sense of humor in the scientists: Blackburnia godzilla, B. mothra, B. burneyi, etc. It is gratifying to have a species named in one’s honor, but I’m not sure about some of the company I’m keeping here!

By David Burney

Comments:

Benjmain Prichard on September 22, 2015

Do you know if any of the beetles were ever referred to as Head Chemists? I was told a story years ago about a beetle called Head Chemists in Hawaii that ate a poisonous plant. The beetle would breakdown the poisonous compounds of the plant in it's head, therefore having a niche food source no other insect could eat.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>