Just one of many
What makes the Hawaiian archipelago special is the enormous number of endemic species found there. Because of the islands’ isolation, the species living there split over time into many different new species. The genus Scotorythra, for example, consists exclusively of moths endemic to Hawaii and comprises around 50 different species. In addition to the Kona giant looper moth, at least the Koolau giant looper moth (S. nesiotes) has also gone extinct. According to the IUCN, both species were last recorded in the early 20th century.
In fact, very little is known about the Kona giant looper moth. We know neither which host plants it depended on nor why it went extinct. What is certain is that it belonged to the geometer moth family (Geometridae) and was therefore one of the nocturnal moths. It was probably active at dusk or at night.
The British entomologist Edward Meyrick, who specialized in butterflies and moths, first described the Kona giant looper moth and various other moths native to Hawaii in 1899 as Acrodrepanis megalophylla. Later, the Kona giant looper moth was assigned to the genus Scotorythra, described in 1883 by the British entomologist Arthur Gardiner Butler.
The Kona giant looper moth was the second-largest endemic moth species in Hawaii after the still extant Blackburn’s sphinx moth (Manduca blackburni). Its wingspan was about eight centimeters.
In Insects of Hawaii. Volume 7 (1958), the American entomologist Elwood C. Zimmermann described the range of the Kona giant looper moth as follows: “This species has been collected above Hilo, in Olaa (now Keaau), in Kilauea and in Kona.” The type locality is Kona at an elevation of 3,000 meters above sea level. All of the places and regions named by Zimmermann are on Hawaii’s main island, Big Island, so it is assumed that the Kona giant looper moth occurred only there.
Kona giant looper moth – fact sheet
| scientific names | Scotorythra megalophylla, Acrodrepanis megalophylla |
| original range | Big Island (Hawaii) |
| time of extinction | early 20th century |
| causes of extinction | unclear |
| IUCN status | extinct |
Hawaii: a paradise of speciation
Image: John Gould, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Before humans arrived on the Hawaiian archipelago, there were no land mammals there except for the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), which also occurs in the Americas. There were no land reptiles or amphibians either. And yet Hawaii has an especially high proportion of endemic species. The evolutionary phenomenon in which one species splits into many different ones is called adaptive radiation. It is favored by the remote location of the Hawaiian Islands. In this way, many ecological niches were also able to form.
In speciation through adaptive radiation, a less specialized species splits into several more specialized species. Each of these new species has particular traits that allow it to adapt to the existing environmental conditions. Because Hawaii consists not of one island but of several, a different species can form on each island.
The Hawaiian island chain, for example, also once held countless species of Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanidini), which probably all descend from a single bird species that once arrived on the islands as a stray and became established there. Nearly half of the honeycreepers are now considered extinct, such as the Ula-ai-hawane or the Oahu nukupuu (Hemignathus lucidus).
Hawaii is also home to numerous species of fruit flies or pomace flies (Drosophilidae). These include twelve described species of Hawaiian long-legged flies in the genus Campsicnemus, all of which have no wings or only reduced wings. The Koolau spur-winged long-legged fly has been considered extinct since 1907. The main cause of its disappearance was the big-headed ant (Pheidole megacephala), introduced to Hawaii in the 19th century.
Today, big-headed ants are among the worst invasive species on Earth, threatening biodiversity and displacing endemic invertebrates in particular. One thing is clear: in Hawaii’s lowlands, the big-headed ant has displaced various insect species and also snail species (for example Achatinella apexfulva and Achatinella buddii). So perhaps there is a connection here as well with the disappearance of the Kona giant looper moth.
About the author: Doreen Fräßdorf
Doreen Fräßdorf is the author and publisher of artensterben.de. She researches and writes about extinct and endangered species in the modern era, with a focus on red lists, scientific studies, historical sources, and current conservation efforts. The goal is a clear, evidence-based overview of biodiversity loss and species protection.
She is also the author of a non-fiction book about extinct modern-era mammals.
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