- Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife announced in July that it had found new populations of the endangered Blackburn’s sphinx moth on Moloka’i – the first confirmed there since the species was believed wiped out in the 1940s – and the endangered pinapinao damselfly on Hawai’i Island for the first time since 1923.
- Staff found sphinx moth caterpillars in Lāna’i City, Hālawa Valley and Kalaupapa between May and June 2026, while a single damselfly was photographed during a routine training exercise in the Waiākea Forest Reserve in October 2025.
- “Rediscovery of these species is unexpected and encouraging,” said DOFAW entomologist Janis Matsunaga, though officials warn Hawaii’s native insects remain under pressure from predators, competing species and habitat loss.
A moth wiped out on one Hawaiian island since the 1940s and a damselfly not seen on another for 102 years have both just turned up alive.
The pair are two of Hawaii’s rarest insects and the fact they have shown up in places wildlife officials thought they’d disappeared for good from has been celebrated as an unexpected conservation win.
The state’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife announced this month that staff had found new populations of the Blackburn’s sphinx moth and the pinapinao, or Hawaiian damselfly, on islands where both had been presumed locally extinct.
The sphinx moth, one of Hawaii’s largest native insects, was thought to be extinct entirely in the late 1970s before turning up again on East Maui in 1984. Since then it’s also been found on Kaho’olawe and Hawai’i Island – but it was believed wiped out on Moloka’i since the 1940s.
That changed in May and June, when DOFAW staff found sphinx moth caterpillars in Hālawa Valley and Kalaupapa on Moloka’i – the first confirmed sighting there in more than 80 years. Staff also found 10 caterpillars in Lāna’i City, only the third sighting there since 2009.
“Hawai’i’s native insect populations are largely declining because of predation, competition with non-native species and habitat loss,” said Janis Matsunaga, a DOFAW entomologist. “Populations of these insects often quietly blink out, island-by-island, until they become extinct. Rediscovery of these species is unexpected and encouraging.”
The damselfly’s return is even more improbable. DOFAW employee Brendan Wang photographed a male pinapinao during a routine training exercise in the Waiākea Forest Reserve in October 2025 – the first confirmed sighting of the species on Hawai’i Island since 1923.
“I would have never guessed that we would find a critically endangered species in a eucalyptus plantation, a habitat previously thought unsuitable for the species,” Wang said. “Since there are native plants in the understory, these damselflies have been able to persist.”
Wang’s advice for anyone who spots one of Hawaii’s rarer insects: report it. “We encourage everyone to learn about native invertebrates and to report sightings of rare species to aid in conservation management,” he said.
