[ { "id": 204807, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "98 \n\nV. R. BURKHARDT \n\nKong,\" published in 1907 illustrated about that number. Since the last war a dozen entomologists have added to the check list, and over fifty fresh discoveries have been made. The most striking was the large \"bird-wing\" ornithoptera Troides helena (Linn.) found in abundance in an obscure wood in the New Territories by Wallis in 1952. The butterfly is black with yellow hind wings and the male has a span of five inches whilst his mate has three quarters of an inch more. Eggs and larvae were found on aristolochia, a creeper which imparts an unpleasant taste to the larvae of this and other insects which patronise it as a food plant. Unfortunately the local villagers stripped the trees of the vines and Troides helena has not been recorded since 1958. In the two years of its abundance several people bred the butterfly from the egg. Its larva is very similar to that of Papilio aristolochiae being black, with numerous processes like fleshy spines, and a white belt in the centre of the body.\n\nPAPILIO PARIS \n\nWhilst England has only one of the Swallowtail family, Papilio machaon, which is confined to the fens of Cambridge and Norfolk, Hong Kong can count seventeen, many of which are very common. Perhaps the most striking is Papilio paris whose sapphire hind wing patch catches the eye as the insect flashes past. The ground colour is rifle green, spangled with gold dust. When freshly emerged the patch is the greenish blue of a turquoise, but these outer scales are shed in flight, and the under feathers are a brilliant sapphire blue.\n\nThe butterfly is to be seen throughout the year except for the winter months from about mid December to mid February, the cycle from egg to imago being about sixty days. The eggs, globular and of a greenish tinge, are laid on the underside of the leaves of Xanthoxylum nitidum, a prickly woody climber or half climbing shrub, very common in the Colony. An alternate food plant is Todalia asiatica, a prickly bush, which is rather scarce, but much appreciated by Papilio paris where it occurs.\n\nWhen the young caterpillars hatch they are brownish in colour, though after the first moult they change to light green. The second, third, and fourth segments are much swollen and two processes form on each of these segments, those on the second being the most pronounced.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204808, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BUTTERFLIES\n\nPlate Papilio paris\n\nPlate 2 Life History\n\nPlate 3 Hypolimnas misippus\n\nPlate 4 Model and Mimic\n\nPlate 5 Hebomoia glaucippe\n\nPlate 6 Life History\n\nPlate 7\n\nSeasonal Variation\n\nPLATE I", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204809, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "Papilio paris (Linn.) 1950", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204810, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "parasited pupa\n\nکمونی\n\npupa\n\nPLATE 2\n\nPapilio paris – Life History", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204816, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BUTTERFLIES\n\n99\n\nA white, suffused dorsal patch, or smear, is on the fifth and sixth segments, extending down the sides. Half grown the creature is bright moss green and the processes become obsolete. The protective armament of all Papilio larvae is known as the osmeterium. From this gland it can protrude two forked filaments emitting an odour which is highly pungent, resembling certain dried fruits. In the case of P. paris the filaments are orange and it extends them when disturbed or annoyed. The pupa is subangular, the general colour bright green, the dorsal and wing ridges light yellow. The head is cleft very obtusely, forming two projections. It is attached to a twig by a cremestral pad at the tail, and a silk girdle. Its coloration makes it extremely hard to detect, and the pupa is rarely found until the imago has emerged, when the empty case, the shade of skimmed milk, renders it conspicuous.\n\nPractically all the Papilio larvae feed on the upper side of the leaf, and are consequently much easier to find than those of other families. Chilasa clytia, whose caterpillars are dark brown with vivid primrose streaks, is a case in point. The food plant is Litsea sebifera, and it seems to affect seedlings so that half a dozen larvae in various stages of growth, vie with each other to attract the human eye.\n\nMODEL AND MIMIC\n\nAnything in motion attracts the human eye, and butterflies on the wing are conspicuous objects. In nearly every case the upper sides of the insects would make concealment difficult, even at rest were the wings to remain spread. Whereas a moth on alighting chooses a background to suit the coloration, and pattern of its forewings which cover the often more brilliantly marked hind, the butterfly rests with folded members cocked up, and merely exhibiting the under pattern. This is usually marvellously broken up to suit the insect's normal surroundings and confers upon it a cloak of invisibility.\n\nIn flight the butterfly relies on speed to evade its main enemies the birds, and those species which have a weaker movement such as the Pieridae rely on its irregularity to dodge their foes. If one of these is met by a collector in a ride it will practically always slip over or under the net, and the only assured way of capture is to strike when the insect is past, with a following sweep.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204817, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "TOO \n\nV. R. BURKHARDT \n\nNot content with the normal camouflage to baffle their enemies certain butterflies actually mimic other species which, on account of the feeding habits of their larvae are unpalatable to their predators. It has been stated in entomological works that Danaus plexippus, the Milkweeds Butterfly, enjoys this immunity, but so far no one has offered proof. The Howling Bird, Megalaima virens, or Great Chinese barbet, is found in the Colony and occasionally is kept as a cage bird. It feeds on fruit, but prefers grasshoppers and insects if it can get them. A wasp, or hornet penetrating into its cage is certain to be snapped up, and swallowed after the sting has been knocked out on the perch. A specimen of Danaus genutia, allied to the aforementioned D. plexippus, was dropped in at the top of the Barbet's cage, and eagerly seized. The moment the body was crushed, however, it was dropped on the floor and the bird spent quite a time cleaning its beak to remove the taste.\n\nThe female praying mantis cannot be called nice in her feeding habits, as she includes even her husband on the menu, but she will not eat one of the Danaidae family and, if one falls into her claws she will release it unharmed if touched with a stick.\n\nThis immunity from whetting someone's appetite has been capitalised by one of the Nymphalidae, Hypolimnas misippus, a really remarkable insect. The male is black with a large white patch in the centre of each wing, surrounded by brilliant blue. The female does not resemble it in the least, but has taken for her model Danaus chrysippus whose marking and colouring she has closely adopted. The butterfly has a wide distribution, but is nowhere very common except in South Africa where D. chrysippus is also very abundant. The mimic varies in size as does the model, and adopts the same slow, lazy flight in its company where it is almost indistinguishable from the unpalatable species.\n\nOne of the local Papilios, the common P. polytes has two forms of females. The usual one encountered has the same markings as the male, but a dimorphic form is a very good copy of Papilio aristolochiae whose larva feeds on a poisonous creeper. The model here is shunned by birds its scarlet body giving warning of nastiness. Papilio polytes differs in having a grey body but there are carmine splashes bordering the white on the lower wings, which probably render it some, if not all, immunity from attack.\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205988, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY Lamproptera curius (Fabricius) walkeri (Moore)\n\nCOLONEL V. R. BURKHARDT*\n\nIntroduction\n\nwith Introduction and Postscript by J. B. Pickford and J. Carey-Hughes\n\nThe 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.\n\nColonel 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'.\n\nIn 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.\n\nAt 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.\n\nCOLONEL BURKHARDT'S NOTES\n\nThe 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.\"\n\n* Colonel Burkhardt's article on Hong Kong Butterflies, with coloured illustrations, appeared at pp. 97-104 of the 1964 Journal, Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205989, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "64\n\nCOLONEL V. R. BURKHARDT\n\nThe main points of Walker's report are that its location was the Happy Valley—now entirely built up—and that the plant on which the insect fed was Buddleia asiatica. Its flight resembled that of one of the Hesperiidae, and that it fed vibrating the wings all the time, with its long tails elevated and quivering. The earliest date he recorded it was on 15th February, 1892, and a fine series was taken on 12th March. In 1893 it was scarce, and did not appear before 2nd April.\n\nNothing is said about the larval stages, or the food plant, but Steven Corbet in his Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, mentioning an allied species Leptocircus meges, states that its larva has been found in Hong Kong on Illigera cordata: in general appearance it is like a Papilio larva, being dark greenish-brown at first, and then changing to dark apple green. The pupa is attached to the upper surface of a leaf of the food plant.\n\nSince 1950 very few collectors in Hong Kong appear to have captured Lamproptera curius and only two instances have been brought to my notice prior to 1957. Lt. Col. J. Eliot took one female near Sai Kung on 2nd May, 1953, and another was secured by the wife of a member of the University staff.\n\nAll butterflies have their cycles of abundance and scarcity, though their incidence has yet to be determined, and 1957 was evidently a peak year for Lamproptera curius. Two collectors, Messrs. R. A. U. Todd and J. Hackney, on 9th June, found the insect swarming in a gully in the centre of the New Territories. Their description of the flight, like dragonflies, tallies with the observations of Commander Walker. The insects were feeding on wild buddleia, and rested between flights with spread wings on fern. Abundant larvae were also noted, but were not taken as they were thought to belong to one of the commoner Papilionidae. On a later visit on 6th July Mr. Todd brought in seven larvae in various stages, with an ample supply of the food plant. This is Illigera platyandra (Dunn) a tough vine with triple pointed leaves growing at intervals of about four inches. The larvae ranged in length from 9 mm to the full fed at 26 mm, which pupated on the following day.\n\nIn the early stages the larva is black over the thorax narrowing above the prolegs, and broadening out again over the tail. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205990, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY\n\n65\n\nsides of the creature above the prolegs is yellow-ochre and there is a narrow border of the same colour around the head and the anal segment. The head is black. There are no processes as in the larva of Papilio agamemnon. By 9th July the smallest larva had grown from 9 mm to 15 mm retaining the same coloration. On 10th July it moulted on the surface of the leaf leaving the black skin. The length was constant at 15 mm. The larva was now apple green, darker on the back, with three narrow yellow stripes on the seventh to tenth segments, and a buff line just above the legs from head to tail. The head is celedon green with four circular black spots on the crown, and two more smaller ones at the angle of the jaws.\n\nFor observation the larvae were kept in a large glass container which, if covered, keeps the food plant fresher than the ordinary breeding cage. On opening this one morning the pungent scent emitted by the Papilionidae when disturbed was very noticeable, but no amount of interference would induce the larvae to extrude the osmeterium so that the colour could be ascertained.\n\nThe green stage of the larva only lasted four days, during which the faint yellow horizontal lines above the prolegs gradually faded out, and the apple green colour rather deepened. The full length attained was 26 mm on the eve of pupation. In all instances but one pupation took place on the underside of the leaf, and not the upperside as recorded by Corbet for L. meges. The pupa is attached by a white cremastral pad, and a very fine silk girdle which is almost invisible, holding the abdomen in contact with the leaf. The shape is very similar to the pupae of P. doson or P. sarpedon, being beaked, but the length is only 22 mm. The colour varied with the background, from yellow-green on young growth, to emerald on mature leaves. The exceptional larva spun up on the glass of the container in a vertical position, head up producing a lilac grey chrysalis. From the beak a seam runs diagonally to the base of the thorax, and another finer line marks the centre of the back for 5 mm when it bifurcates making a roughly elliptical figure to the tail. All pupation was during the hours of darkness. Emergence took place exactly seven days after pupation, but this is the hottest time of the year, the mean temperature being around 85°F. All imagines appeared between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m, standard time. Just before emergence the pupal case is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 } ]