Kamehameha Butterfly (Vanessa tameamea)
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About Kamehameha Butterfly (Vanessa tameamea)
- Kingdom: Animals
- Phylum: Arthropods
- Class: Insects
- Order: Butterflies and Moths
- Family: Brush-footed Butterflies
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.
Source: Wikipedia