"...This sketch of the metereological conditions of Hong Kong would not be complete without some mention of the abnormal weather which prevailed in the middle of January, 1893, and the disastrous effects of the frost which them occurred - a frost, I should imagine, without precedent at the sea-level within the tropics - on insect and vegetable life. After a day of steady cold rain on January 15th, the thermometer on board ship fell to 38º at 8 a.m. in the 16th, and before sunset it was freezing in exposed places at the level of the sea. The hill tops were all day shrouded in mist, with a piercing north wind and driving rain which froze as it dell, encasing every leaf and twig, and coating the exposed surfaces of walls and rock-faces, with solid and beautifully clear ice to the depth of an inch and more. This icy covering was general at elevations of 400 feet and upwards, and at Victoria Peak the telegraph wires were broken in several places, being unable to support the weight of the icicles which formed upon then, and were sometimes more than a foot in length. On the night of the 17th-18th, water again froze at sea level, and the lowest air temperature at an elevation of 1500 feet was 25°. The cold wave appeared to have spent its force on the 19th, and by the 21st the temperature was once more normal. On the 22nd I find these remarks in my journal - "Fine, warm, and almost calm. In 'Happy Valley', for one butterfly that was now on the wing, fifty might have been met with about ten days ago. Euploea superba and lorquinii, Danais genutia and similis,had all but disappeared, solitary examples of each species, in the last stage of decrepitude, being all that were met with; one Terias, one Cupha erymanthis, and one Iraota in fine condition, which I secured, were also noticed. Mycalesis perseus (var. visala) alone, was not very uncommon." On the 24th, my friend Mr. Skertchly and I observed Vanessa canace, Melanitis ismene, Abisara echerius, Lycaena boetica, Zizera maha, and Pieris canidia on the wing, all apparently freshly emerged, but very scare, only one or two of each species being noticed. For several weeks afterwards, scarcely a butterfly was to be seen even on fine days, and as late as march 17th, only twenty-one species were observed on the wing as against fifty-six species at the corresponding date in 1892. (Cf. S.B.J. Skertchly, "Nature", Vol. 48, pp. 3 et seq.). By the middle of April, however, the butterflies were once more as numerous individually as they were at the same time in the previous year, with the exception of three or four species (notably the Euploea's), which had not recovered their usual abundance by the time I finally left Hong Kong. The damage done by the frost to the native vegetable was incalculable, several species of plants being entirely killed off, and the aspect of whole districts being altered (Cf. "Nature", Vol. 47, pp. 535, 536). previous to this unprecedented "cold wave", the lowest temperature recorded at Hong Kong was 45°, in February, 1885."
From: A Preliminary List of the Butterflies of Hong Kong; based on Observations and Captures made during the Winter and Spring Months of 1892 and 1893. By James J. Walker, in Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 1895, Part IV (December), Chapter XVII.
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