Hawaii has a new butterfly, which has spread to every island within two years, University of Hawaii researchers report.

The Sleepy Orange butterfly, Abaeis nicippe, was first spotted in December 2013 in Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore, according to UH professor Daniel Rubinoff and researcher William Haines.

“The speed with which the Sleepy Orange is establishing itself in Hawaii is remarkable, especially considering how many instances of single-island endemism — insect species isolated on a single island — exist in this archipelago,” Rubinoff said in a news release Thursday.

The butterfly’s range is broad as well, from sea level to 6,800 feet up the slopes of Haleakala on Maui.

The last time a new butterfly was identified in Hawaii was in 2008, when the Lesser Grass Blue, Zizina otis, was found, the scientists said.

They said the insect likely hitchhiked in on plant shipments, rather than riding in on a storm.

The larvae of the Sleepy Orange feed on tropical flowering plants, including shower trees. But Rubinoff and Haines do not believe that it poses a threat to those or other ornamental landscape plants in the islands.

“While Hawaii has again dodged a bullet with this probably harmless introduction, it does go to show that we need to contribute more resources towards quarantine and reduce our reliance on imports, since the butterfly was almost certainly brought in accidentally on imports from the mainland,” Rubinoff said. “The butterfly is unlikely to build up numbers sufficient to threaten ornamental plants, and it has not been recorded feeding on any native Hawaiian plants at this time.”

Its name notwithstanding, the butterfly is a rapid and erratic flier, pausing only to take nectar from flowers or to sip water from mud puddles. The species is now common on Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Hawaii island and Kahoolawe.

The species is widespread in the U.S. South, and it occurs as far south as Brazil and as far north as Canada.

Elsewhere the butterfly has distinct summer and winter forms, but in Hawaii only the summer coloration has been seen. It is golden yellow with dark brown markings, including speckles on the underside of the wings and a wide band around the edges of the wings on its upper side.

The butterfly is about 2 inches across at its wings’ widest span.