An invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle has likely been detected on Molokaʻi for the first time.
The Molokaʻi-Maui Invasive Species Committee found a dead beetle in a trap at the Kaunakakai Harbor Tuesday morning, according to a news release by the state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. The trap was empty the last time it was checked on March 30.
CRB has been detected on every main Hawaiian island except Molokaʻi. Now local invasive species groups and government agencies are on the lookout for more.
“The goal is to determine if there's an incipient breeding population on Molokaʻi, or is this a hitchhiker that may have found its way onto the barge?” said Jonathan Ho, the plant quarantine manager for the agriculture department.
Traps and other resources have already been sent to Molokaʻi to help catch any potential beetles on the island.
“We're going to really need, obviously, the public — landowners, any businesses in that immediate two-mile area — to really take a look at if they do have possible feeding, damage or damage to their trees … or identifying large amounts of breeding material that could have CRB,” Ho said.
The discovery comes shortly after a dead beetle was found on Maui for the first time since 2023. The insect was found at Kahului Airport in the afternoon of April 1.
Last September, a wide-ranging ban on imports to Molokaʻi was established to prevent the beetle from reaching the island.
