NOTES AND QUERIES
301
This list was kindly provided and updated by Mr. Howard Nelson of The British Library (Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books) and includes items in the Collection as of December, 1976. Those interested in genealogies from Kwangtung should compare it with the lists of holdings in the Fung Ping Shan Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong and elsewhere, given in Lo Hsiang-lin's A Study of Chinese Genealogies (†☎##6X), Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, 1971, pp. 211-240.
Hong Kong. April 1977.
Hon. Editor.
THE OCCURRENCE OF TROIDES HELENA (LINN.) IN HONG KONG
J. CAREY-HUGHES, B.Sc., F.Z.S. AND JOHN BERRY PICKFORD
Troides helena, the Common Birdwing, has an extensive range in the Indo-Australian faunal zone and was first discovered in Hong Kong by WALLIS in the New Territories, and bred by him and POTTER (a collector who bred several other butterflies through from egg to imago and recorded his findings in The Hong Kong Naturalist Vols. IX and X) from the larva. This is recorded by ELLIOT in his Check-list of December 1953.(1) The insect, apart from years of population explosion, is rare in Hong Kong which must be situated near the northernmost limits of its range.
The butterfly is spectacularly beautiful and its high soaring flight about the tops of trees is a memorable sight. The forewings are black with white-dusted veins and the hindwings black and gold as can be seen from the illustrations. The females are larger than the males having a wingspan of up to 13 cm. although this is exceeded in other parts of its range where measurements of up to 18 cm. have been noted. Males and females are easily distinguishable even on the wing by their different pattern, apart from the size.
Our first encounter with Troides helena took place in 1958 when a male and female were captured in two isolated areas of the New Territories. Sporadic sightings occurred between then and 1967, although BURKHARDT, in a conversation with one of us, expressed the opinion that he thought the insect was extinct in Hong Kong and mentioned in Vol. IV of the R.A.S. Journal that the butterfly had not been seen for a number of years.(2)