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Butterflies of the Forbidden Kingdom - China (1 Viewer)

Very interesting, do you think it might be available at that price in Hong Kong? How otherwise might I get a copy from China?

Does this book have maps, ie is it possible for a non Chinese reader to work out which species known from Sichuan?

cheers
dave

Wow, I'd like to get my hands on that too.

I'm searching and all I can find is this

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/...nual+butterflies+china&sortby=17&an=chunsheng



A

Initially, I tried to find it in the Shanghai book store and Xinhua book store but they don't have and they could not locate it using the ISBN no as well. So, i went through some trouble and ordered it online(That's taobao, only in Chinese and they don't do overseas shipping).. So I'm not sure if you will find it any HK bookstore.

Eventhough, the illustrations are very elaborate, the book doesn't have distribution maps but the range is given in description. It took a while for me to memorize the province names in Chinese. It doesn't stop there, sometimes the range is mentioned as "South of Qinling mountains" , "South of Yangtze river" - these kind of range descriptions are often makes me frown for not pursuing to learn Mandarin.

There is also no mention of subspecies or i haven't figured that out yet. The illustrations are of samples collected from different provinces but i'm not sure that will qualify them as a diff ssp.
 
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Initially, I tried to find it in the Shanghai book store and Xinhua book store but they don't have and they could not locate it using the ISBN no as well. So, i went through some trouble and ordered it online(That's taobao, only in Chinese and they don't do overseas shipping).. So I'm not sure if you will find it any HK bookstore.

Eventhough, the illustrations are very elaborate, the book doesn't have distribution maps but the range is given in description. It took a while for me to memorize the province names in Chinese. It doesn't stop there, sometimes the range is mentioned as "South of Qinling mountains" , "South of Yangtze river" - these kind of range descriptions are often makes me frown for not pursuing to learn Mandarin.

There is also no mention of subspecies or i haven't figured that out yet. The illustrations are of samples collected from different provinces but i'm not sure that will qualify them as a diff ssp.

Hmm, sounds difficult, a saving of £225 well worth making an effort for though.

Sounds like it would be very difficult to extract a checklist for Sichuan from this book without reading Chinese.
 
Chinese Peacock (Papilio bianor)

A recent addition to my Shanghai list. Seen earlier this year in April for the first time. A mega sized individual posed for a lengthy time in the early morning hours before the sun came up.
So far this has been the "Top Butterfly" of the patch.

Also, the "Butterfly Valley" in the XiaoYangshan island. This place has been less productive over the years for birds but has totally yielded some very nice butterflies.
 

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Red ring Skirt (Hestina assimilis)

Bit scarce along the east coast. So far i have seen it only twice and the spring one's were always scruffy. Almost all the individuals we saw this spring din't have their red skirt.
 

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A recent addition to my Shanghai list. Seen earlier this year in April for the first time. A mega sized individual posed for a lengthy time in the early morning hours before the sun came up.
So far this has been the "Top Butterfly" of the patch.

I had this in Hong Kong on Mt Victoria, same family but this is Paris Peacock Papilio paris I think which I've also seen in Thailand

Andy
 

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Gorgeous one, Andy. There is no doubt that HK is a better butterfly destination. I'm planning to include the distribution range also in the coming posts which is a literal translation from my handbook.

The distribution range for Papilio paris in China is East, Central and South China including Taiwan.
 
Chinese butterfly books.

The new 4 volume set is available on Tao Bao - https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...FWd4gD&id=544438043554&ns=1&abbucket=8#detail at a little under HK$3000 (circa US$385) per set.

There is an older book, in 2 volumes, by Zhao (alt. spelling=Chou) (1996, I think), which is also in Chinese, with scientific names used throughout, and some keys in English. Taxonomy is now a little outdated.
Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium (2-Volume Set) [Chinese]: Monograph of Chinese butterflies. ISBN: 7534915740
Also expensive (via NHBS, for example), but probably available for less if one searches.
 
Plains Cupid (Chilades pandava)

Time to revive the thread. It's been busy couple of months to settle the new house, car and the paperwork surrounding it but it's also winter to do any proper butterfly trips in East China.

Coming back to the butterflies, back in October, i saw something new in my neighborhood, it had denim blue upperparts with a shortish tail. I dint have bins or camera at that time. On the following weekend, i hit the Paotaiwan Wetland park at the mouth of Huangpu river. It was the Golden Week and the crowd was scary. I spent couple of hours in the park before the people started flooding. Yes, i did find the blue and some odd butterflies which i haven't seen in Shanghai before.

Name : Plains Cupid
Scientific Name : Chilades Pandava
Chinese Name : 曲纹紫灰蝶
Range : South of Yangtze River
 

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Dark small-branded Swift (Pelopidas mathias)

On the same day, there was good no of swifts. I initially thought it was only one species (Common Straight Swift) but when i checked the photos later, i found this.

Name : Dark small-branded Swift
Scientific Name : Pelopidas mathias
Chinese Name : 纹谷弄蝶
Distribution : (Literally everywhere) Beijing, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Taiwan and Hongkong.
 

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Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia)

Back in May 2017, When i first saw it in Wuyuan(Jiangxi), it was magical. Two months later, it was surprise again. Loads of them in Shanghai but the summer heat was too much to any longer out in the park.

Common Name : Lesser Purple Emperor
Scientific Name : Apatura ilia
Chinese Name : 柳紫闪蛱蝶
Distribution : North, Central and SouthWest China
 

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Indian Fritillary (Argyreus hyperbius)

Probably, the most commonest butterfly to see anywhere in China.

Common Name : Indian Fritillary
Scientific Name : Argyreus hyperbius
Chinese Name : 斐豹蛱蝶
Distribution : Throughout China
 

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Sichuan trip approaching rapidly, I saw a copy of the book but decided against it, not just because of the price but the weight! So i am resorting to compiling my own illustrated checklist, very time consuming but hopefully worth the effort.

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

End of May is a prime time for butterflies in Sichuan and the specialties occur in high altitudes (4000m above msl). I looked into my mate's Itinerary and it looked juicy, i was very much tempted to do it but again Sichuan needs loads of homework and i found it first hand back in 2011.

Good luck in Sichuan.
 
Chinese Hairstreak (Amblopala avidiena)

Hot of the plate. April 8th started with our regular spring watch, only to be detained by the Police at the XiaoYangshan Port island, well they thought i was there to bomb the port and disrupt the trade route. After 90 minutes of Same Questions/Same answers routine, they let us go. The cop told me in his tattered English "Go back Shanghai, See bird in Century Park".

It was of any coincidence, two years ago, i had the major passage of "Asian Swallowtails" (9 April 2016). And two years later, we had another big passage just 24 hours ahead of the previous sighting (8th April 2018).

It was good to see massive no's of Swallowtails but our butterfly of the day is the "Chinese Hairstreak". We saw only two individuals, they were seen most of the time on the new leaf buds as it seemed they were feeding on them.

Common Name : Chinese Hairstreak
Scientific Name : Amblopala avidiena
Chinese Name : 丫灰蝶
Distribution : Shaanxi, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian
 

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Lesser Mime (Papilio epycides)

By the end of the day, when we finished admiring a lonely male Brown-headed Thrush (that's the first since two years). A speeding car set off a butterfly and the flight silhouette gave us an impression that it has transparent wings.

It din't give us much trouble as it quickly settled down. It was very apparent that the butterfly showed up at the dusk and let us observe it at close distance, it was migrating and all it wanted to rest.

Common Name : Lesser Mime
Scientific Name : Papilio epycides
Chinese Name : 小黑斑凤蝶
Distribution : South, SouthWest and East China
 

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Species No.20 : China Nawab

Birding has been real slow this spring, migrants here and there but nothing spectacular. The weather has been incredibly great, no rain or haze in the last four weeks which makes a good passage for birds without staying long for stop over.
I had lost the intent of hitting the coastal jaunts after four continuous weeks of hard birding. So a casual visit to the Wild Animal Zoo yielded couple of "Red Ring Skirts" but the mega pick was a single "China Nawab" near the Elephant enclosure. The last time i saw it was in Jiangxi province and the handbook has a illustration of a specimen collected from Jiangsu province. Otherwise, the butterfly has a wide distribution across China.

Common Name : China Nawab
Scientific Name : Polyrua narcaea
Chinese Name : 二尾蛱蝶
Distribution : Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Yunnan, Beijing, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Taiwan.
 

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Species No.21 : European Peacock

A very old but a mega tick for East China. Back in October 2016, i was fairly new to butterflies and had it put down as Asian Comma but later that year when i saw Blue Admiral, thought that could be it. Only when i was revisiting the old photos and cross checking with the hand book, i stumbled onto the right ID.

As per the handbook and the Chinese Wiki, its range is mostly North China and nowhere close to East China. That makes it a jumbo record for Shanghai/Zhejiang.

Common Name : European Peacock
Scientific Name : Inachis io
Chinese Name : 孔雀蛱蝶
Distributiion : Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Gansu, Qinghai. Xinjiang
 

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I can't identify this one, possibly Neope sp but what species? Photographed above Moxi on road to Gongga Shan, Sichuan yesterday.
 

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