WAILUKU — A butterfly normally found in Central America could be used to fight an invasive tree species taking over large areas of Hawaii forest, officials said.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Department of Land and Natural Resources have proposed releasing the Golden Sombermark butterfly to help curb the invasive miconia tree, The Maui News reported Wednesday.
The Sombermark has been used in Costa Rica to fight the miconia, which is now difficult to find in the Central American country, said Tracy Johnson, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service entomologist.
The Sombermark “is one of many specialized natural enemies important for keeping miconia in check and in balance with its ecosystem,” Johnson said in a statement.
Miconia was first brought to Wahiawa Botanical Garden in 1961 as an ornamental plant and was later introduced to other botanical gardens on Oahu, according to a draft environmental assessment of the project released Monday.
The tree reached Hawaii island by 1964, Maui in the early 1970s and Kauai by the early 1980s, the assessment said.
The plant is native to Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina, and can grow more than 52 feet (16 meters) tall, although it usually reaches heights of from 13 to 40 feet (4 to 12 meters).
The tree’s dark green leaves with purple undersides can quickly shade over and dominate other species, eventually taking over areas.
Invasive species experts have tried controlling miconia using herbicide, but Hawaii entomologists hope to use miconia’s natural enemies.
The butterfly is known as Euselasia chrysippe. Growing caterpillars of the species hatch, feed, molt, and pupate together in groups of up to 100.
Studies of the larvae in Hawaii island and Costa Rican labs from 2012 to 2014 found they “overwhelmingly prefer feeding and only survive on Miconia calvescens and a few close relatives.”
If the butterfly is approved for release, officials would focus on abundant miconia sites in East Maui and East Hawaii island, the assessment said.
Establishing self-sustaining butterfly populations could happen within a year with a few staff working part time on the project at an estimated cost of $60,000, the assessment said.
