- A FAUNAL SURVEY OF NINE FOREST RESERVES IN TROPICAL SOUTH CHINA, WITH A REVIEW OF CONSERVATION PRIORITIES IN THE REGION
- BUTTERFLIES OF HONG KONG
- MANUAL de INSECTOS de MACAU
- COMMENT ON MANUAL de INSECTOS de MACAU WITH SOME CORRECTIONS
- GEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES OF HONG KONG
- ACROSS THE ISLAND - ITS NATURAL BEAUTY
- IN THE NEWS
- HONG KONG AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES
- MEMOIR 21 OF THE HONG KONG NATURAL HISTORY
A FAUNAL SURVEY OF NINE FOREST RESERVES IN TROPICAL SOUTH CHINA, WITH A REVIEW OF CONSERVATION PRIORITIES IN THE REGION by John R. Fellows and Hau Chi-hang, 1997. Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong, 152+15 pp., 82 tables, 11 figures, HK$90, hardbound. Available from KFBG.
This unassuming volume may actually start a quiet revolution in Chinese conservation efforts. Not only does it mark what is hopefully the dawn of a new era in co-operation between researchers in Hong Kong and mainland China, but it also points the way to an approach to conservation research that is sorely needed in China.
Surveys of nature reserves in China by multi-disciplinary teams of specialists are not new. Over a dozen "Comprehensive Survey Reports" have been published for reserves from many regions of China, although these are generally unavailable outside of the mainland. These reports typically include descriptions of forest communities and faunal lists, at least for terrestrial vertebrates, higher plants and "economic" species. Many of the lists presented here are probably not as complete as those, but, for species other than mammals, they may be more reliable. It is also notable that the same approach, and many of the same experts, were used in all nine reserves, so results are directly comparable. Fellows and Hau present the results in a very readable style. They are alternately encouraging, as when we learn that there are still patches of old-growth lowland tropical rainforests left in the region, and devastating, as when we are presented with long lists of rare wildlife available in markets and restaurants.
Many of the reserves covered here have never been surveyed before, However, what is especially remarkable about this volume is the effort that has gone into making use of the information contained in the surveys. Considering the desperate shortage of resources for conservation in China, and the ambitious goals set by the government for expansion of the number and size if reserves, it is important that conservationists take stock and choose carefully before committing funds and effort. This volume begins to fill this urgent need for prioritisation of sites and species for conservation action.
Fellows and Hau sketch out an approach to prioritisation that is based on educated guestimates of each species' geographical dependence on the subunit, its dependence on forest reserves and its rarity among reserves. These are combined to give each species a "Dependence Rating", essentially a measure of how much the species depends on individual reserves for its continued survival. By combining these scores for all species within a reserves, one obtains within a reserve, one obtains an objective measure of the importance of each reserve for maintaining faunal diversity. This would seem a vast improvement over the crude "hot spots" approach traditionally used by international conservationists, which relies on species richness and degree of threat to assign priorities.
Although an impressive effort, the faunal surveys summarised here are admittedly inadequate to complete the task. Surveys were necessary rapid, non-random, and incomplete. Some key areas were only allocated a single day of effort by the team,m often under conditions that were not ideal. However, if we concentrate on the forest rather than the trees, this is a remarkable advance in conservation for the mainland. It also puts Hong Kong's biodiversity into regional perspective which may be an enlightenment for the more insular of Hong Kong's specialists, The one regret is that the volume is only available in English, and so will not be widely read in China.
BILL BLEISCH
Training Development Specialist,
WWF China Programme
It is unfortunate that over the last few years it has been almost impossible to obtain any of the books previously published on Hong Kong butterflies. This, coupled with the fact that Paul Lau's book is (as far as I am aware) the first to have been written in both Chinese and English, will make Butterflies of Hong Kong a requirement on the bookshelves of all the growing number of people interested in natural history in the SAR.
The book is particularly useful for novices as it follows the practice of other recent field guides by having photographs of live butterflies in the field, rather than pinned specimens, as predominate in the previous local publications on this subject. It is pocket-sized (another advantage over its predecessors) and easy to take into the field.
An excellent innovation is the inclusion of pictorial indices at the front and back of the book, formed from small-scale renditions of many of the plates, including eggs, caterpillars and pupae as well as adult butterflies. The keys are followed by an introduction to butterflies and their natural history.
The main section of the book is the species accounts, which are presented family by family. However, within families, species are treated in alphabetical order by their English common names, which is unfortunate as similar species, often in the same genus, are frequently several pages away from each other. Under each species a short description is given for the adult, egg, caterpillar and pupa, accompanied by photographs of these different stages. Having descriptions of even the adult butterflies is something previous authors have failed t o do, and so is a very welcome element of this book. This is followed by sections on habitat and flight and a curious section on "approach" which comments on how easy it is to get near to adults of the particular species. At the end of each account is a section covering distribution and status.
One of the major drawbacks of the book is the limited number of species covered and the bias towards the larger, more obvious butterflies of the families Papilionidae and Nymphalidae. More difficult groups such as the skippers (Hesperiidae) are only about one fifth represented. This bias also results in exclusion of many of the more common species, including the browns Elymnias hypermnestra (Common Palmfly), Mycalesis panthaka (Common Bush Brown) and Ypthima baldus (Common Six-ring), the blues Euchrysops cnejus, Everes lacturnus, Famegana alsulus, Jamides bochus and Nacaduba kurava, the skippers Astictopterus jama, Parnara bada, P. guttata, Pelopidas agna, Polytremis lubricans and Potanthus confucius, and all of the grass yellows (Eurema spp.).
The book can be purchased directly from Paul Lau at GPO Box 4667, Central, Hong Kong.
PAUL ASTON
P.28-29
This may be the first textbook of its kind written in both the Chinese and Portuguese languages designed for teaching the study of insects to primary through secondary school students.
The first chapter illustrates the parts of a typical insect as well as its anatomy, and examples of complete and gradual metamorphosis are shown. Ten orders of insects are described, namely the Blattodea (roaches), Mantodea (mantids), Isoptera (termites), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets), Homoptera (cicadas, leafhoppers, aphids etc.), Heteroptera (true bugs), Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (true flies), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants). Other orders are simply mentioned by name, which is misleading since several are well-represented in Macau, including Neuroptera (lacewings, antlions), Odonata (dragonflies, damselflies), Psocoptera (booklice), Dermaptera (earwigs) and Phasmatodea (stick insects). Insect collecting methods are attractively illustrated with nine colour drawings, but information regarding the preparation or preservation of insect specimens is lacking.
A checklist consisting of at least 450 names of insects in Chinese and Latin is probably the most useful section of the manual since many of these scientific names, particularly of the bees and wasps, are listed in Macau for the first time. Colour photographs, which should serve a useful purpose as a preliminary guide to identification, are provided for 391 species. There are no dichotomous keys or species descriptions provided. More than half (257) of the species listed are Lepidoptera, and other orders are under-represented. The manual lists 32 species of Heteroptera, for example, whereas this author has reported 59 to date (Proc. Entomological Soc., Washington, 99(3) 574-82). Only 4 cicadas are listed while the author knows of at least 9 species found in Macau. The most serious shortcoming however lies with the Diptera, only six species of which are listed. Scholars from Portugal have reported 35 species of mosquitoes alone from Macau.
An index of scientific names of host plants follows with an index of scientific names of insects and their photos and then an index of Chinese names. An entomolo gical glossary defines terms in Portuguese and Chinese, and finally there is a bibliography and general index. The bibliographic section lists some important works in entomology written in Chinese and English. What is disappointing however is the complete absence of any reference dealing with Macau insects, which could mislead readers into thinking that no one has ever worked in Macau before in this field. The authors may not have felt the need to cite scientific papers, but the senior author should have c ited his own work - a booklet entitled Some Moths we have found in Macau (1995, 27pp), as it contains numerous colour photographs of the insects and is written in both English and Chinese.
EMMETT R. EASTON
P.29-30
Whilst I can not comment about this book in general, I do feel that some words about the moths listed and illustrated therein are necessary. So far, during the course of some 16 months of study during my Ph.D. programme and from the work of several others in the field over the last twenty years (principally:- Galsworthy, 1997, in prep.; Tennent, 1992; Li, 1992, 1994, 1996; Waring, Thomas & Li, 1994, 1997; Bascombe, unpublished data, also in Holloway, 1987, 1996; Young J.J., unpu blished data; Kendrick, 1995, 1998), some 1500 species of moth have been recorded from Hong Kong and many more are thought to await being seen. Thus the 170 or so species listed in the Manual is likely to represent, at best, ten per cent of Macau's moth fauna.
I commend the clarity of the presentation - even though the actual curation of some of the specimens is poor, to the point of making identification difficult. It is a pity more of the excellent larval photographs were not included, although I fully ap preciate the effort involved in such a task. The layout of the checklist is admirably clear, too.
These points are somewhat countered by the content.
The taxonomic order of the moth and butterfly Families is not followed; this results in a confusing picture regarding Family affiliations, which could easily have been avoided by following one of several standard texts on the matter (i.e. Scoble, 1992; Neilsen et al., 1996). Also, Hypsidae and Nolidae are now regarded as subfamilies of Noctuidae - Aganainae and Nolinae, respectively (Scoble, 1992).
The accuracy of the nomenclature used is very variable. Some species have been identified with junior synonyms. For example, for Carea subtilis read C. angulata (Fabricius, 1793); for Agrotis ypsilon Rott., A. ips ilon (Hufnagel, 1766) and for Lacera alope, L. procellosa Butler, 1879. There are many misplaced genera - Anua for Ophiusa Ochsenheimer, 1816; Gadirtha for Iscadia Walker, 1857; Enmonodia Walker, 1858 for Hypopyra Guen'ee, 1852; Remigia Guen'ee, 1852 for Mocis Hübner, [1823]; Anophila for Aedia Hübner, [1823]; Buzura Walker, [1863] for Biston Leach, [1815]; Semiothisa Hübner, 1818 for Godonela Boisduval, 1840 (this genus has been re-split to accomodate the vast numbers of species dumped in Semiothisa (see Holloway, 1996)); Parallelia auct. (not Hübner, 1818) for Dysgonia Hübner, [1823]; Chionaema Herrich-Schäffer, 1855 for Cyana Walker, 1854 and at least six genera in the Pyralidae, despite having referenced Robinson et al. (1994). Even both combinations together have been updated, for Calogramma festiva Donovan is Spodoptera picta (Guerin-M'en'eville, 1830). Also one typographic error, probably not picked up in proof - Thalassodes guadraria should read Thalassodes quadraria. These errors may be due to the recent emergence of several key taxonomic works affecting South China's moth fauna, principally the series on the moths of Borneo (Holloway, 1983 to present) and Australia (Nielsen et al., 1996), but these changes should have been considered by the authors.
Unfortunately there are some clear errors in identification. These are as follows: for Ericeia fraterna read E. subcinerea (Snellen, 1880); for Erebus crepuscularis, E. ephesperis (Hübner, 1827); for Anisoneura hypocyanes, A. aluco (Fabricius, 1775); for Polydesma otiosa, P. boarmoides (Guen'9e, 1852); for Problepsis paredra, P. vulgaris Butler; for Calothysanis comptaria Walker, Timandra convectaria Walker, 1861, for Theretra pinastrina Martyn, Theretra silhetensis (Boisduval, 1879) and for Nyctalemon monetius, Lyssa zampa Butler, 1869. There may be other misidentifications; genitalia dissections would be needed for several species and not all the species illustrated are known to occur in Hong Kong, so I can not be sure. These errors could have been avoided if reference to the reasonably available published literature (e.g. Barlow, 1982; Holloway, 1983 and onwards; Common, 1990; Esaki et al., 1991) had been thorough. At least the errors made by Hill et al. (1982) and Hill & Cheung (1988), except for N. monetius, were rectified.
I assume the dates of publication for species\rquote descriptions are left out for conformity and possibly because the book is aimed at being an introduction to insects rather than the foibles of taxonomic description. On the same basis, I woul d have expected the authors to ignore classification to subspecies level; its use in an apparently inconsistent fashion in the Manual is vexing.
The work does considerably advance the amount of knowledge available on Macau's moth fauna, as previous papers (Easton & Pun, 1995, 1996) were either lacking in representation or contained much taxonomic uncertainty or error (Galsworthy, pers. comm.).
References:
Barlow, H.S. (1982). An Introduction to the Moths of South East Asia. Published by the author, distr. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur & E.W.Classey, Faringdon, U.K.
Common, I.F.B., 1990. Moths of Australia. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, Australia. 535 pp., 128 figs., 32 plates.
Easton, E.R. & Pun W-W., 1995. Some Moths We Have Found in Macau. University of Macau. 27 pp.
Easton, ER & Pun WW, 1996. New records of moths from Macau, Southeast China. Tropical Lepidoptera 7: 113-118
Esaki, T., Issiki, S., Matuura, A., Inoue, H., Ogata, M., Okagaki, H. & Kuroto, H., 1991. Icones Heterocerorum Japonicorum in Coloribus Naturalibus (2nd ed., 8th imprint). Hoikusha Publ. Co., Osaka.
Galsworthy, A.C., 1997. New and revised species of macrolepidoptera from Hong Kong. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 21: 127-151.
Galsworthy, AC, in prep. Check-list of the moths of Hong Kong. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society
Hill, D.S. & Cheung, W.W.K., 1988. Hong Kong Insects. Urban Council, Hong Kong.
Hill, D.S., Hore, P.M. & Thornton, I.W.B., 1982. Insects of Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press.
Holloway, J.D., 1983. The Moths of Borneo: part 4; Family Notodontidae. Malayan Nature Journal, 37: 1-107.
Holloway, J.D., 1985. The Moths of Borneo: part 14; Family Noctuidae: Subfamilies Euteliinae, Stictopterinae, Plusiinae, Pantheninae. Malayan Nature Journal, 38: 157-317.
Holloway, J.D., 1986. The Moths of Borneo: part 1; Key to Families; Families Cossidae, Metarbelidae, Ratardidae, Dudgeoneidae, Epipyropidae and Limacodidae. Malayan Nature Journal, 40: 1-165.
Holloway, J.D., 1987. The Moths of Borneo: part 3; Lasiocampidae, Eupterotidae, Bombycidae, Brahmaediae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae. Southdene Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Holloway, J.D., 1989. The Moths of Borneo: part 12; Noctuidae: Noctuinae, Heliothinae, Hadeninae, Acronictinae, Amphipyrinae, Agaristinae.Malayan Nature Journal, 43: 57-226.
Holloway, J.D., 1993. The Moths of Borneo: part 11; Geometridae: Ennominae. Malayan Nature Journal, 47: 1-309.
Holloway, J.D., 1996. The Moths of Borneo: part 9; Geometridae: Oenochrominae, Desmobathrinae, Geometrinae. Malayan Nature Journal, 49: 147-326.
Kendrick, R.C., 1995. A Short Survey of the Moths (Lepidoptera) of Hong Kong - Species, Habitat Preferences and Implications for Habitat Management. B.Sc. degree project (Otley College University of East Anglia) and unpublished report to Agriculture & Fisheries Dept., Hong Kong.
Kendrick, RC, 1998. New moth species for Hong Kong; 1997 records. Porcupine! 17: 14
Li, K.H.K., 1992. Notes on a collection of Macroglossum and other species (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) in Hong Kong. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 19: 1-4.
Li, K.H.K., 1994. Observations on the life histories of Sataspes infernalis and Sataspes tagalica (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in Hong Kong. Tyō to Ga 45: 125-144.
Li, K.H.K., 1996. Ecological notes on Hong Kong Thyrididae (Lepidoptera) including the immature stages of eight species. Tyō to Ga 47: 125-143.
Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangsi, T.V., 1996. Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. C.S.I.R.O., Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. 529 pp.
Robinson, G.S., Tuck, K.R. & Shaffer, M., 1994. Smaller Moths of South-east Asia. Natural History Museum, London. 309 pp., 51 figs., 32 plates.
Scoble, M.J., 1992. The Lepidpotera: Form, Function & Diversity. Natural History Museum / Oxford University Press.
Tennant, W.J., 1992. The Hawk Moths (Lep.: Sphingidae) of Hong Kong and South-east China. The Entomologist's Record & Journal of Variation 104: 88-112.
Waring, P., Thomas, RC & Li, K.H.K., 1994. Hawk-moths in Hong Kong, April 1993, with ecological notes.British Journal of Entomology and Natural History, 7: 181-191.
Waring, P., Thomas, RC & Li, K.H.K., 1997. Lepidoptera in Hong Kong, April 1993. British Journal of Entomology and Natural History 10: 77-100.
P.30-31
Geology has a low status in Hong Kong, not just academically and professionally, but also in the public consciousness; a pity, as it has some cracking tales to tell, and breathtaking landscapes to tell them with.
For many years now, Hong Kong has been crying out for a popular treatment of its geology, one that goes beyond the rather lacklustre Urban Council publications, Hong Kong Rocks and Hong Kong Minerals, with their colourless texts and amateurish plates. These books give the impression of having been shoehorned into a standard format used, for example, in the series of books on the territory's flora and fauna.
Porcupine! readers will need reminding less than most of the value of an awareness of geological and geomorphological processes. The biosphere did not develop In isolation, but coactively with lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. So it was with pleasant anticipation that I approached this slim volume, published to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Geotechnical Engineering Office. And Indeed it goes some way towards plugging the gap, its 65 colour plates and 12 grayscale sketches supplemented by a user-friendly, if brief, text in both Chinese and English. Despite being published as a softcover, it has the look and format (A4, landscape) of a coffee-table book, and its white open spaces and crisp captions certainly reinforce this impression.
Sections are devoted to landscapes developed on each of the major local rock types - volcanics, granites and sediments - as well as to smaller-scale phenomena such as dykes, veins and weathering. A consequence of this is that a good proportion of the photographs do not qualify~ as landscapes - "natural scenery,... as seen In a broad view" (Concise Oxford Dictionary).
It quickly becomes apparent that the book is not intended as a popular geology, but as a kind of sampler to tempt the curious. All the same the textual treatment, at its most cursory, is sometimes too simplistic A sentence like "The desert conditions made most of the rocks red" is of little use to the Inquiring layman or hobbyist.
These are minor nitpickings. My main beef is with the sometimes Insipid quality of the landscape photographs. Too many of them were taken under less-than-ideal light and visibility conditions, yielding unresolved horizon lines and dreary hues; Indeed, many seem to be from the same aerial shoot on a hazy day. While the geology is mostly well illustrated, the uneven picture quality is disappointing in a book of landscape photographs. This criticism would be fairly minor had the word "landscapes" been omitted from the title; with its inclusion comes the expectation that pictures of the highest aesthetic quality as well as geological pertinence lie between the covers.
It is notoriously difficult to do good landscape photography In Hong Kong as the conditions for it are so seldom right. Fogs and suspended particulate matter muddy the air, and predicting when those rain-rinsed cerulean skies appear is no easy job, but superior landscape photography is not impossible, as Ed Stokes' Hong Kong's Wild Places attests. [Also see below]
Nevertheless, Geological Landscapes of Hong Kong is a worthwhile project. It is browsable, many of the pictures are arresting, and the easily-digested approach to landscape In terms of its geology makes it a fresh and welcome addition to the many Hong Kong coffee-table books out there. If; along the way, it stimulates a few people into thinking about the awesome geological processes that helped define the landscape, so much the better.
NOTE. Those wishing to read up on local geology are directed to the Hong Kong Geological Survey's excellent series of memoirs, the final volume of which was published last year. These are technical books aimed principally at engineers, planners, educators and earth scientists. Meanwhile, the search for a popular geology of Hong Kong continues...
STEVE REELS
P.31-32
The impulse to preserve lies at the bottom of all art
Philip Larkin
This lavishly produced and beautifully photographed book, written in English with accompanying Chinese translation, sets out to celebrate the beauty and grandeur of Hong Kong Island by taking the reader (or viewer) on an exhausting, exhilirating series of treks across its Interior. By so doing, author and photographer Edward Stokes clearly hopes to engender In his audience an enhanced appreciation of the place as it is, and to encourage preservation of what remains. In this respect the book is a natural progression from Stokes' earlier offering, Hong Kong's Wild Places.
Stokes is determined not just to celebrate the landscape but to idealize it, In keeping, he suggests, with the tradition of Chinese landscape painting. And indeed, many of his photographs, taken with an array of filters, full depth of field and extended exposures, do bear a semblance to painted works. This is particularly striking in the numerous richly-textured images of running water. Also, the quality of light achieved in many of the landscapes is arrestingly beautiful. These luxurious photographs are embedded in a text which is at times cloyingly sumptuous - I question the need for the use of the adjective "lyrical" no less than four times - but invariably informative and absorbing.
Always, we are aware of the city's presence. A powerful underlying theme of Across the Island is Hong Kong's spectacular marriage of landscape and cityscape, well exemplified by this description of the view from Violet Hill: "Slopes drop down into the depths of Tai Tam, past the lizard-like Intermediate Reservoir, on to the lake-like expanse of Tai Tam Tuk. In late afternoon the dam walls stand out sharply, the ochre banks glow. Gullies cast deep shadows across wooded slopes. Behind me to the north-west, framed by Wong Nai Chung Gap, the city skyline rears up. The sun glints off countless office towers: the Bank of China sends gleaming triangles back through tall tufted grasses." Here (and not only here), Stokes recreates the moment with a commendably spare lucidity.
Elsewhere, Stokes' meticulous research is evident in the historical back-drop which he provides for the eight walks on which he takes us. He also occasionally ventures into natural history, and it is a particular pleasure to see him quoting from Clive Viney's little-known book on the bird-life of Mount Nicholson (reviewed in Porcupine! 14). This is not really his field, however, so one should not judge him too harshly for erroneously stating that Hong Kong has 250 species of butterfly (although he could easily have found a more correct figure by reference to the last Porcupine!). Earlier, pondering the frustrating elusiveness of Hong Kong's mammal fauna, Stokes is moved to exclaim "How little we really know!" The chastening lesson for local ecologists is clear.
The book conveys a sustained environmental message, explicit on every page. However, there is a subtler subtext. It becomes increasingly evident that this is a deeply personal journey for the author, who grew up on the island, and whose obvious dismay at the presence (and prospect) of intrusive developments is given an added poignancy by the childhood reminiscences, never allowed to become too intrusive, in which he occasionally indulges.
Across the Island is a large book generously sponsored by the MTR, and at times the author seems at pains to gratify his benefactors, as when he states "For our children to inherit breathable air, Hong Kong and Guangdong need to rapidly expand their mass transit electrical railways." Never mind; Ed Stokes has given us another astonishing reminder of the scenic splendour that exists beside our city. I'd buy it.
GRAHAM REELS
P.32-33
In the news...?
There is no In the news in this issue. Too much "news" has taken place since the last issue of Porcupine!
to be able to cram it all in. Anguished readers many draw some comfort from the knowledge that In the
news will be back in time for the next issue of this newsletter.
COMING THIS MILLENIUM
Hong Kong Amphibians and Reptiles 2nd Edition
An Urban Council Publication by Steve Karsen, Michael Lau and Anthony Bogadek
Don't hold your breath
P.33
Available now
Memoir 21 of the Hong Kong Natural History Society was published in December 1997. It contains (amongst others) an annotated checklist of Hong Kong dragonflies, the tree flora of Hong Kong macrolepidoptera, a checklist of vascular plants in fung shui woods, a revised checklist of Hong Kong amphibians and reptiles, and additions to the flora of Hong Kong.Copies are available from Professor I.J. Hodgkiss, Department of Ecology & Biodiversity, the University of Hong Kong. For local purchases, please send a cheque for HK$68 made out to "The Kong Kong Natural History Society" to cover the cost of the memoir plus postage and packing (overseas customers should send for an invoice). Information on earlier memoirs is also available on request.
P.33
Back to Contents
Back to Porcupine Homepage
Go to Departmental Homepage