科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了幾種僅見(jiàn)于夏威夷的毛蟲(chóng)在水下和陸地環(huán)境中都能正常生活,。Daniel Rubinoff 和 Patrick Schmitz觀察到了Hyposmocoma屬的蛾的幼蟲(chóng)能在水下和遠(yuǎn)離溪流的干燥巖石上取食和呼吸,，他們還為這種毛蟲(chóng)的基因測(cè)序，從而重建它們的進(jìn)化史,。
盡管許多昆蟲(chóng)可以在休眠期忍受極端環(huán)境，此前已知沒(méi)有昆蟲(chóng)能夠在整個(gè)生命周期里從水面之上和之下生存。這組科學(xué)家提出,，這種毛蟲(chóng)的兩棲生活方式可能代表了Hyposmocoma屬蛾歷史上分三次發(fā)生的平行進(jìn)化的例子，這些進(jìn)化的發(fā)生早于600多萬(wàn)年前考艾島的形成,。
類似的平行進(jìn)化的模式（有親緣關(guān)系的物種獨(dú)立獲得類似的適應(yīng)）也已經(jīng)見(jiàn)于夏威夷的豆娘和鳥(niǎo)類,。這組作者說(shuō)，這項(xiàng)研究凸顯了夏威夷原產(chǎn)的獨(dú)特的植物和動(dòng)物物種，棲息地的喪失可能威脅它們的生存,。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.0912501107
Multiple aquatic invasions by an endemic, terrestrial Hawaiian moth radiation
Daniel Rubinoff1 and Patrick Schmitz
Insects are the most diverse form of life on the planet, dominating both terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, yet no species has a life stage able to breath, feed, and develop either continually submerged or without access to water. Such truly amphibious insects are unrecorded. In mountain streams across the Hawaiian Islands, some caterpillars in the endemic moth genus Hyposmocoma are truly amphibious. These larvae can breathe and feed indefinitely both above and below the water's surface and can mature completely submerged or dry. Remarkably, a molecular phylogeny based on 2,243 bp from both nuclear (elongation factor 1α and carbomoylphosphate synthase) and mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase I) genes representing 216 individuals and 89 species of Hyposmocoma reveals that this amphibious lifestyle is an example of parallel evolution and has arisen from strictly terrestrial clades at least three separate times in the genus starting more than 6 million years ago, before the current high islands existed. No other terrestrial genus of animals has sponsored so many independent aquatic invasions, and no other insects are able to remain active indefinitely above and below water. Why and how Hyposmocoma, an overwhelmingly terrestrial group, repeatedly evolved unprecedented aquatic species is unclear, although there are many other evolutionary anomalies across the Hawaiian archipelago. The uniqueness of the community assemblages of Hawaii's isolated biota is likely critical in generating such evolutionary novelty because this amphibious ecology is unknown anywhere else.
