 However, a survey by Akito Y. Kawahara and Emmanuel Toussaint in 2018 designates it as endangered using the IUCN 3.1 criterion, but with an overall lack of sightings it is possibly extinct.It was previously listed as extinct, but was rediscovered in 2001 by Kawahara.It is threatened by deforestation because encroaching Caribbean pine tree farms incentivize clearing the host plant "Celtis pacifica" from the Toovii Plateau of Nuku Hiva.