Kamehameha Butterfly
Vanessa tameamea
- Vulnerable
- Card rarity: Rare
- Insects
The Kamehameha butterfly is one of the two species of butterfly endemic to Hawaii, the other is Udara blackburni. The Hawaiian name is pulelehua. This is today a catch-all native term for all butterflies; its origin seems to be pulelo "to float" or "to undulate in the air" + lehua, "reddish", or "rainbow colored", probably due to the predominant color of the Metrosideros polymorpha flower: an animal that floats through the air, from one lehua to another. Alternatively, it is called lepelepe-o-Hina – roughly, "Hina's fringewing" – which is today also used for the introduced monarch butterfly.
Classification
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Genus
- Vanessa