These Tiny, Stunning Moths Are Only Found in One Place on Earth | National Geographic

a lot of people think moth and they’ll
think are great fuzzy things they don’t
want flying around their lights at night
and these things don’t look like that at
all in fact most moths don’t you say to
anybody microscopic moth they’re
somewhat interested with the naked eye
you know it doesn’t really look like
anything but when you really get in
there they’re amazing they’re really
beautiful so they’re really tiny and
when I say really tiny I mean about the
size of an eyelash I don’t just mean the
length of an eyelash I mean like the
width of an eyelash each species of
Philidor is closely tied to one species
of host plant if the host planet is in
danger in any way then the moth is
endangered and so there are some
Philidor species that we are just now
discovering that seem to only feed on
really rare Hawaiian plants some of
these only have a handful of individual
plants left in the entire world I am
worried that a lot of these guys are
disappearing and nowhere else on earth
this this organism exists Hawaii has a
long history of conservation even so
some places are still imperiled it’s the
extinction capital the world and some
people would go so far as to say is
there any point to doing this work
anymore unfortunately these systems need
human management and if you were to say
it’s hopeless we should give up we know
what’s going to happen Native Hawaiian
ecosystems would be gone
so there’s a lot of work to be done we
got to figure out how all these things
related from there try to inform
conservation action that both protects
the insects and the plants it’s
difficult to find these guys the lowland
habitat is destroyed by development or
invasive species and so you have to go
to the backs of valleys or distant Ridge
lines or isolated mountain ranges
it’s helicopters its four-wheel drive
it’s hiking for a really long time and
you have to really squeeze and fall a
lot you’re searching for this plant and
you might not find it and then you might
not find a law but any piece of
information is critical ranging from
what Island it was found on what host
planet was tied to how long these moths
take to develop oh that thing is
gorgeous it’s the best thing thank you
to myself when you actually find one
it’s here on this plant the times energy
to sweat the blood the money that goes
into all this
and you find one of those it’s just
amazing oh there’s another one
give me another vial you know another
vial okay uh keep an eye on where is it
so far for something so small that’s one
part I secretly hope that we’ll get
people to care about it they’ll see
another person going to these crazy
lengths for this super tiny thing even
if they think the person is crazy
they’ll be like whoa man that guy like
cares about these moths
this is a world in and of itself that
deserves to be there its life that’s
unique and that’s reason to conserve it
the Laysan albatross chicks that we’re
raising they have a lot of personality
when you first look at them you wouldn’t
realize that how much variation there is
among different birds but there really
is you’re a feisty one aren’t you