A new species of Hawaiian finch (Drepanidini: Loxioides) from Makauwahi Cave, Kaua'i

A new species of Hawaiian finch is described from two fossil maxillae recovered from Holocene lacustrine sediments in Makauwahi Cave, island of Kaua'i. The new species is assigned to Loxioides on the basis of characters defined in a previous study of drepanidine phylogeny. The maxilla of the new species resembles that of L. bailleui (the only other member of the genus) in its distinctly foreshortened shape, but differs in size and several qualitative characters. The species was sympatric with Loxioides cf. bailleui during the Holocene on Kaua'i. Like L. bailleuli, it may have been a resource specialist feeding mainly on leguminous pods. The radiocarbon chronology of the Makauwahi site indicates that the species became extinct in the late Holocene and, more tentatively, that it may have survived well beyond the time when humans first discovered and colonized Kaua'i.