We Need Bugs

 

Convincing people to use native plants more in their landscape has been an evolving message over the last 20 years. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Doug Tallamy, his fellow researchers/authors, and many others, we now know that supporting insects is the strongest reason we have to use more native plants.

Red admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)

Why do we need bugs? They perform many services such as pollination (bees, flies, beetles, wasps, butterflies, moths); decomposition (beetles); and even pest control (wasps). They also support the ecosystem in another important way: they become food for other insects and for birds and small mammals. Over the last 20 years, Audubon at the national and regional levels have taken up the native plant message as a critical part of supporting native birds.

I’ve just returned from a 10-day visit to the island of Hawai’i (called the big island) which has a nice mix of tourist areas (Kona, Hilo) as well as fantastic natural areas (Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park). We spent our first 5 days in Kona, which has mostly non-native plants. I saw no insects and most of the birds were non-native sparrows, doves, and myna birds. Rarely did we hear any other bird calls.

The last part of our trip was in the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park which tries very hard to preserve native plants, restore native plants, and to remove invasive plants.

One of our day trips in the Park was to the Kīpukapuaulu Trail, a 1.2 mile trail dedicated to preserving biological diversity of native species. Some people call this the Bird Trail, a testament to the power of native plants to support a variety of birds. The birds were absolutely there in abundance, and their songs and calls delighted us throughout the walk. We even saw the Kamehameha butterfly (Vanessa tameamea), one of only two native butterfly species in Hawai’i. Its host plant, a shrub in the nettle family known as māmaki (Pipturus albidus) was there in abundance; the butterfly itself was after sapflows on tall trees and I wasn’t able to get a photo but there was no mistaking it (it very much resembles our red admiral butterfly, a species that also hosts on nettles).

Māmaki (Pipturus albidus)

ʻŌhiʻa (Metrosideros polymorpha)

Native plants make a difference; go somewhere where they are in the minority and I think you’ll see the difference too. I'll share here a photo of one my favorite Hawaiian Islands endemic plants: known as ʻŌhiʻa (Metrosideros polymorpha), it is abundant in the park and one of the earliest to take hold in areas where lava flowed. We saw it in many places where it was the only thing growing in a sea of black lava. Its bright red flowers are a source of nectar for the native birds known as Hawaiian honeycreepers.