Endemic species are everywhere on Hawaii, the Island chain created by vulcanos far from everything in the pacific ocean. The only way for a plant or animal to arrive on the Island used to be Wind, Waves or Wings (the 3Ws). The waves transported coconuts, swimming animals and animals caught on floating objects to the island, the wind brought airborn seeds and tiny organisms and the wings, I.E. the birds and the insects, could arrive at their own accord and would sometimes carry stowaways like nuts, seeds and parasites.
Hawaii has been extra hard for animals and plants to colonize because the group of island is the most isolated land mass on earth with more than 4000 km (2400 Miles) to the nearest continental shore. The main island emerged from the sea about 10 million years ago but other Islands allready existed in the area which meant that the biological colonization of the are had allready begun in the area. Many submerged banks and coral atolls in the area are remnants of these ancient peaks.
The reasons that Hawaii has so many endemic species is the fact that it located so far away from other areas, this works as a biological filter as most animal populations can be traced back to a low number of ancestors that found their way to the island, sometimes only one or two specimens. This means a very small gene pool with make it easy for new species to develop as every mutation can get a large effect on the entire population.
Birds are often among the first larger animals to find new Islands due to their ability to fly. Some of the birds that find a new land mass will chose to settle there and over time develop into a destinct species if they have limited contact with other specimens of the same species. This is as an example where you find the Hawaiian duck (Anas wyvilliana), the Hawaiian Goose (Branta sandvicensis), Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) as well as the Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius). In the local language, they are known as Koloa maoli, Nene, Ua u, and Io, respectively.
A good example of the numerous Hawaiian tropical flowers endemic to the archipelago is Hibiscus brackenridgei, the official state flower of Hawaii. It is known as Ma’o hau hele in the local language and can be found in shrub lands and dry forrest areas below an elevation of 800 meters (2600ft). Although rare, it is found on all the main islands except Ni’ihau and Kaho’olawe. Ma’o hau hele produces large yellow flowers with a maroon centre that grows singly or in small clusters at the ends of branches.
Among the spiders and insects that have managed to colonize Hawaii you will find the snail eating caterpillar Hyposmocoma molluscivora, which is more commonly known as the happy faced spider Theridion grallator, aswell as the tree-living snail Achatinella apexfulva. Hyposmocoma molluscivora is a type of moth and the larvea of this moth species uses silk to capture snails and then crawls into their shells where they eat the snail alive. The caterpillars are only found on the island of Maui and are known to make a case out of silk and decorate it with actual snail shells, perhaps in an effort to camouflage themselves from their prey.