RANGE: Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Hawaii, possibly Lanai

STATUS: This insect is not listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The Hawaiian swordtail cricket of the genus Laupala is one of several generas of flightless crickets found in rainforest habitat across the Hawaiian islands, made up of 35 recognized species. Swordtail crickets are the largest subfamily (Trigonidiinae) of Hawaiian crickets, with more than 150 species thought to exist — but these crickets quite small in size, and stay on the ground, where they usually inhabit bushes. All native Hawaiian crickets exhibit classic “island flightlessness,” having lost their hindwings during evolution to retain only their forewings, which they use for producing sound. In 2005, biologists declared the Laupala cricket the fastest-evolving invertebrate thanks to its extremely finicky mating behavior: Females of the genus refuse to mate with males of other species — which they can pick out by detecting tiny differences in the pulse rates of male courtship songs, which differ from one species to the next. The Laupala mating ritual lasts up to eight hours.