Koa wilt it starts to produce microconidia, eventually clogging the xylem. Once the Koa tree dies, the fungus invades all tissues and, upon reaching the dead plant surface, sporulates profusely producing macroconidia and chlamydospores. The fungus can survive saprophytically in the soil, as either mycelium or as any of its three spore types mentioned. The chlamydospores, as the resting spores, survive the longest in the soils, usually under cold conditions. Koa trees occupy dry to mesic areas on the islands of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi in elevations of 80 to 8,000 feet with 0 to 100 inches of rain.
Scotorythra paludicola State Park. Laboratory feeding trials of these larvae showed that they could complete their development at the same rate on both the normal host ("Acacia koa") and the invasive tree ("Falcataria moluccana"). Three other exotic tree species, "Acacia confusa", "Prosopis pallida", and "Leucaena leucocephala" were not suitable host plants and all the larvae tested on these species died after 5 days of feeding. Scotorythra paludicola Scotorythra paludicola, the koa looper moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It was first described by Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1879. It is endemic to the Hawaiian islands of Kauai, Oahu, Maui and