ENG-1969 — Page 320

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NATURAL HISTORY

snakes are non-poisonous and death from snake bite is extremely rare. Apart from back-fanged species, not dangerous to man, the venomous land snakes are: the Banded Krait, with black and yellow bands; the Many-banded Krait with black and white bands; MacClelland's Coral Snake, which is coral red with narrow, black transverse bars; the Chinese Cobra and the Hamadryad or King Cobra, both of which are hooded; the very rare Mountain Pit Viper and the White-lipped Viper or Bamboo snake. The Bamboo snake is bright green, and although less venomous than the others, is more often seen and is more likely to attack if accidentally disturbed. The Hamadryad preys almost exclusively on other snakes. Several species of sea snake, all venomous, are found in Hong Kong waters but, fortunately, do not commonly attack bathers. An amphibian of special interest is the Chinese newt. The Hong Kong variety has not been recorded anywhere else in China.

There are nearly 200 species of butterfly in the Colony. Of the many moths two are outstanding for their size. These are the Atlas and Moon moths with wing spans of nine and six inches respectively. Apart from butterflies and moths there is a great variety of insects, many brilliantly coloured. They include many species of dragon fly and damsel fly and metallic-coloured beetles and solitary wasps. The beautiful Candle Fly or Lantern Fly has delicately coloured wings like those of a butterfly, but is more closely related to the cicada. It lives on lychee trees and is remarkable in that its forehead is almost as long as its body, hence the Chinese name which trans- lated means the elephant-nosed bug. The adults of several species of cicada emerge during spring and summer. They range from the rare three-and-a-half inches Tacua to the small grass cicadas less than a half an inch long.

Land molluscs of note are the Giant African Snail, measuring about five inches long, which was introduced (and is now a con- siderable pest), and a large black slug, Veronicella, a species sufficiently distinct from all other slugs to be placed in a separate family.

FLORA

The flora of the Colony is tropical, although at about the northern limit of tropical flora. After centuries of cutting and burning most of the original arborescent vegetation on the mountainsides has been