A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY Lamproptera curius (Fabricius) walkeri (Moore)
COLONEL V. R. BURKHARDT*
Introduction
with Introduction and Postscript by J. B. Pickford and J. Carey-Hughes
The following notes on the breeding of Lamproptera curius walkeri are from the records of the late Colonel V. R. Burkhardt, together with some correspondence he had with Mr. N. D. Riley of the British Museum of Natural History.
Colonel Burkhardt served in China and Hong Kong for many years, including two periods as Military Attaché to the British Embassy to China. He published three volumes on Chinese Creeds and Customs (H.K., South China Morning Post Ltd., 1953, 1955, 1958) and contributed a weekly article in a local newspaper on the same subjects under the pseudonym 'Pioneer'.
In addition to his interest in Sinology he was an enthusiastic and painstaking entomologist. In later years, due to storage difficulties he did not keep his set specimens, but made water colour illustrations of the many species he had caught including a large number of rarities. While these are extremely well executed and scientifically correct, there is really no substitute for the whole insect.
At the time of Colonel Burkhardt's notes on L. curius (1957) little or nothing was known of the early stages of this butterfly. His observations are recorded here without alteration.
COLONEL BURKHARDT'S NOTES
The small Papilio Lamproptera curius was first reported in Hong Kong by Commander Walker in 1892, and his name is associated with it by Moore. Kershaw describes it in his Butterflies of Hong Kong (1907) as very scarce and sporadic, appearing to become scarcer in Hong Kong of late years. He continues "I have seen so little of this insect that I cannot do better than quote Commander Walker's account in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, for 1895."
* Colonel Burkhardt's article on Hong Kong Butterflies, with coloured illustrations, appeared at pp. 97-104 of the 1964 Journal, Ed.
A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY Lamproptera curius (Fabricius) walkeri (Moore)
COLONEL V. R. BURKHARDT*
Introduction
with Introduction and Postcript by J. B. Pickford and J. Carey-Hughes
The following notes on the breeding of Lamproptera curius walkeri are from the records of the late Colonel V. R. Burkhardt, together with some correspondence he had with Mr. N. D. Riley of the British Museum of Natural History.
Colonel Burkhardt served in China and Hong Kong for many years, including two periods as Military Attaché to the British Embassy to China. He published three volumes on Chinese Creeds and Customs (H.K., South China Morning Post Ltd., 1953, 1955, 1958) and contributed a weekly article in a local newspaper on the same subjects under the pseudonym 'Pioneer'.
In addition to his interest in Sinology he was an enthusiastic and painstaking entomologist. In later years, due to storage dif- ficulties he did not keep his set specimens, but made water colour illustrations of the many species he had caught including a large number of rarities. While these are extremely well executed and scientifically correct, there is really no substitute for the whole insect.
At the time of Colonel Burkhardt's notes on L. curius (1957) little or nothing was known of the early stages of this butterfly. His observations are recorded here without alteration.
COLONEL BURKHARDT'S NOTES
The small Papilio Lamproptera curius was first reported in Hong Kong by Commander Walker in 1892, and his name is associated with it by Moore. Kershaw describes it in his Butterflies of Hong Kong (1907) as very scarce and sporadic, appearing to become scarcer in Hong Kong of late years. He continues "I have seen so little of this insect that I cannot do better than quote Commander Walker's account in the Transactions of the Entomo- logical Society of London, for 1895."
* Colonel Burkhardt's article on Hong Kong Butterflies, with coloured illustrations, appeared at pp. 97-104 of the 1964 Journal, Ed.
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