Problems of Insect Speciation in the Hawaiian Islands

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Abstract
The Hawaiian biota arrived via chains of island "stepping stones" to the northwest and has evolved into a superficially harmonic whole since early Tertiary times. One of the best examples of insular speciation is seen in the Lygaeid tribe Orsillini (Hemiptera), a group of insects which reaches its highest development in Hawaii. All of its 87 spp. are endemic. This inordinate proliferation of spp. is attributed primarily to isolation, both geographical and host, under disharmonic environmental conditions acting over a long time. The genera Neseis and Oceanides, comprising about of the spp., are endemic and occur only at high elevations in the native forest. The spp. of Neseis and Oceanides show a high degree of host- and island-specificity and break up into distinct specific or supraspecific groups exhibiting geographical replacement. One-third of all the spp. belong to the cosmopolitan genus Nysius. These are found from sea-level, where they compete successfully with recently introduced ants and other predators, to the tops of the highest mountains. They occur principally on endemic and introduced Compositae.

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