Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society Events and Activites

Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society Events & Activities

Brief report on the Field Trip to Ma On Shan Country Park,
Hong Kong for hill toping butterflies (25 April 1999)

by James Young

Participants: Yvonne’s whole family, Gable and his daughter, Tan Ching, Sandy, Yiu Vor, James Young.

After meeting everyone at Shatin MTR station at 8:30am, we headed off to the Ma On Shan Country Park.

The sun was shining with occasional cloud cover. Luckily, there was no rain and we managed to climb to the ‘saddle’, one of the peaks of Ma On Shan (The Hunchbacks) facing the Tai Po area. This peak overlooked the Ma On Shan residential areas below where the vegetation cover was at its best. We saw a lot of very rare butterflies hilltopping at the peak and I reckoned this peak at Ma On Shan was the best place in Hong Kong for butterfly watching. The butterflies we encountered were listed below at a glance. We made our way back at around 2:00 pm. We were all exhausted when we returned to the parking lot at the Ma On Shan Country Park picnic area. We promised to return.

The following butterflies (mostly males) were found at the top of Ma On Shan’s peak:

Hesperiidae:

Parnara guttatus

Papilionidae:

Chilasa clytia (both the grey and brown form), Graphium cloanthus, Graphium doson, Graphium sarpedon, Papilio bianor, Papilio demoleus, Papilio helenus, Papilio memnon, Papilio paris, Pathysa antiphates

Pieridae:

Delias acalis, Delias pasithoe, Cepora nerissa, Hebomoia glaucippe, Ixias pyrene (female), Prioneris thestylis

Lyceanidae:

Acytolepis puspa, Arhopala pseudocentaurus (1½ size of A. bazalus), Nacaduba kurava

Nymphalidae

Heliconiinae:

Argyreus hyperbius (a pair in copulation)

Nymphalinae:

Hypolimnas bolina, Vanessa cardui

Limenitidinae:

Athyma ranga, Athyma cama, Cyrestris thyodamas, Dichorragia nesimachus, Parasarpa dudu

Charaxinae: