Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai‘i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, has announced the rediscovery of two native Hawaiian land snails not seen in nearly a century.
Museum researchers, along with partners from the Kauaʻi Forest Bird Recovery Project, found live specimens of Godwinia caperata (first described in 1852) and Hiona exaequata (described in 1846) during recent biodiversity surveys on Kauaʻi.
Hawaiʻi’s land snails are among the most threatened animals on Earth, with hundreds of species already extinct. In Hawaiian tradition, kāhuli (land snails) are honored in song and stories as voices of the forest. Each surviving species represents millions of years of evolution as well as deep cultural connections…