Nihoa Finch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Nihoa Finch
Male (right) and female (left) pair of Nihoa Finches
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Fringillidae
Subfamily:	Drepanidinae
Tribe:	Psittirostrini
Genus:	Telespiza
Species:	T. ultima
Binomial name
Telespiza ultima (Bryan, 1917)

The Nihoa Finch (Telespiza ultima) is one of the two endemic bird species of the tiny Hawaiian island Nihoa, the other being the Nihoa Millerbird. When it was classified in 1917, scientists thought that it would be the last endemic species named. This was later found untrue. The island's population is 1000-3000 birds. The Nihoa Finch was added to the Endangered Species List by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on March 11, 1967. An attempt to protect the species against extinction was made by starting a colony on French Frigate Shoals, another leeward island. This would ensure its continued existence in the event that the Nihoa population was wiped out. This attempt, however, failed. Nihoa is part of a group of islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge which provides protected land for the Nihoa Finch to roam on. The Nihoa Finch looks much like the Laysan Finch but is smaller, and less dark. The diet of this bird includes items like sea birds’ eggs, small arthropods, and the seeds and flowers of some of the native flora. The birds have a yellow throat and the front is streaked with brown; the head and back are brown streaked with black. It measures about 6 inches in length. Nihoa Finches build their nests in small spaces in rocky cliffs about 100 to 800 feet above the sea level. The breeding season begins in February and might go on till early July, ending with a clutch of usually three eggs. The Nihoa Finch will get its adult plumage in about a single year.

[edit] References

1. ^ BirdLife International (2009) Telespiza ultima In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. www.iucnredlist.org Retrieved on 30 January 2010.

Nihoa conehead katydid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Nihoa Conehead Katydid)

Jump to: navigation, search

Nihoa conehead katydid
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Family:	Tettigoniidae
Genus:	Banza
Species:	B. nihoa
Binomial name
Banza nihoa Hebard, 1926

The Nihoa conehead katydid, Banza nihoa, is a species of katydid which is endemic to the Hawaiian island of Nihoa (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands). It is one of the ten species in the genus Banza, all of them native to Hawaii, although it is the sister species to the remaining nine, and may belong in a separate genus.^[2] It gets its food mostly from plant leaves, but because of the low population, it does not do significant damage. Unlike Main Islands' species, whose males leap on the females before mating, the Nihoa variants sing to them.^[3] It is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List,^[1] and as a "species of concern" under the Endangered Species Act.^[4]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Orthopteroid Specialist Group (1996) Banza nihoa In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. www.iucnredlist.org Retrieved on July 2, 2010.
2. ^ L. H. Shapiro, J. S. Strazanac & G. K. Roderick (2006). "Molecular phylogeny of Banza (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), the endemic katydids of the Hawaiian Archipelago". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41 (1): 53–63. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.006. 
3. ^ Mark J. Rauzon (2001). "Life on Nihoa". Isles of Refuge: Wildlife and History of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 14–21. ISBN 978-0824823306. 
4. ^ Species Profile: "Nihoa Banza Conehead katydid (Banza nihoa)" US Fish and Wildlife Service. Accessed July 2, 2010.

[edit] Further reading

• N. Evenhuis and L. Eldredge, Natural History of Nihoa and Necker Islands, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 2004.

This Orthoptera-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.