RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 98 V. R. BURKHARDT Kong," 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. PAPILIO PARIS Whilst 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. The 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. When 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. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r TOO V. R. BURKHARDT Not 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. The 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. This 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. One 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. Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================