Research findings at Red River Butterfly Valley

As early as May 1998, Southwest Forestry University raised bamboo for the Kunming World Horticultural Expo. Liu Jiazhu and three others drove down the Red River. They heard in Manhuo Town beside the Red River that it was adjacent to the border with Vietnam. Ma'andi Township has a large bamboo forest with many types of bamboo, so I decided to go to Ma'andi to investigate.

At this time, Yunnan has entered the rainy season, and the abundant rainfall brought by the tropical monsoon has soaked the simple roads in the rugged mountainous areas into mud. The off-road vehicle slowly twisted and crawled forward, and the people on the vehicle were thrown around. Liu Jiazhu, who was concentrating on driving the car, occasionally heard the sound of his companions' heads hitting the roof of the car and their sighs. Four hours later, the car had traveled more than 30 kilometers. After climbing over the top of the mountain, the vegetation on both sides of the road became increasingly dense. As the altitude continues to decrease, looking around is filled with greenery. A small stream flowed out of the dense forest and crossed the road. The clear water made Liu Jiazhu and his companions stop the car and decided to wash away the dust of the journey.

Liu Jiazhu went up the stream and suddenly found a waterfall pouring down from the dense forest, flying beads splashing jade, and the forest was filled with bursts of mist. Liu Jiazhu picked up his camera to shoot at the waterfall, and suddenly a small yellow dot appeared in the lens. Liu Jiazhu, who is extremely sensitive to butterflies, knew it was a butterfly.

There are only 4 species of arrow-ringed butterflies in China, and they are a type of large butterfly. Their brown-yellow wings are inlaid with gorgeous arrow-ring patterns. Butterfly taxonomists named them arrow-ring butterflies based on this feature. The scientific name of the arrow-ringed butterfly captured by Liu Jiazhu is Stichophthalmalouisa. This butterfly is distributed in many areas of Yunnan and is a common butterfly species in forests. Liu Jiazhu didn't pay attention, and continued to move forward after releasing the butterfly, only to find that there were more and more arrow rings and discs around him. They walk through the forest, flying up and down, with graceful and elegant postures.

The sun shines through the gaps in the bamboo forest onto the grass beside the path. A large group of golden white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies gather there, there are actually hundreds of them. They stood next to each other on the ground, motionless. New members are constantly flying in from far away to join their gathering, and the gathering community is getting bigger and bigger. Liu Jiazhu was watching with great interest when suddenly a big bird swooped down with the sound of wind, its spread wings flew over the group of butterflies, grabbed a small green snake by the creek not far from the group of butterflies, and disappeared in the forest in the blink of an eye. among. The appearance of the big bird not only disturbed the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies gathering on the grass, but also disturbed the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies hiding in various places in the forest. The disks on the ground scattered in all directions, and there were countless butterflies flying in the forest. The overwhelming number of white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies flying through the forest is dazzling and dizzying.

Liu Jiazhu was so stunned by the sudden spectacular sight that he even forgot to raise his camera to take pictures. The sight of butterflies flying in the sky is very similar to the Butterfly Valley reported in the Americas and Taiwan. Unexpectedly, there is also a Butterfly Valley where a large number of butterflies live and gather in the border areas of Yunnan!

Research Impact

The phenomenon of such a large number of butterflies of the same species gathering together is often called a "butterfly gathering". It is a common sight after a certain butterfly population explodes. An animal population explosion refers to a sudden and rapid increase in the population of a certain species within a specific period of time. As for the reasons for the explosive growth, researchers are most interested in studying it. This chance encounter made Liu Jiazhu very interested in the white-sleeved arrow-ring butterfly at the bottom of the saddle. He and his colleague Zhou Xuesong decided to set up a research and photography team to observe and record the ecological habits of the Saddle Bottom White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly to find the answer to the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly outbreak. To explore the reasons for the population explosion of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly at the saddle bottom, we should start with its parasitic plants. In nature, one kind of butterfly larvae only feeds on one kind of plant. To find the parasitic plant of the arrow ring butterfly, you must find out which plant their larvae eat. However, there are no records of the host plants of the arrow-ringed butterflies in various academic works on butterflies. Even the "Chinese Butterfly Chronicles", known as the masterpiece of Chinese butterflies, only has a few lines of morphological descriptions of the four species of arrow-ringed butterflies. and distribution location text. It seems that we still need to work hard to find out what the white-sleeved arrow butterfly larvae eat.

In the spring of the next year, Liu Jiazhu and Zhou Xuesong rushed to the saddle with a lot of photographic equipment and tape capture tools. After arriving at Ma'andi, they first went to the township government to explain their intentions. They were warmly welcomed by Hei Liying, secretary of the township party committee and head of Pu Zhen, who helped them contact the guide, introduced the local natural conditions in detail, and contacted the management of Ma'andi in the Jinping Watershed National Reserve. Yang Shaoke, a rescue worker at the station, helped them. They learned that the saddle-bottom white-sleeved arrow-ring butterfly has occurred almost every year since its first major outbreak in 1992. During the outbreak, white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies are everywhere, so many that they are annoying and even scary. At the beginning, everyone didn't know how to deal with it. Based on common sense, they believed that these butterflies were pests and had once used pesticides to kill them on a large scale. Later, it was discovered that these yellow butterflies, apart from flying all over the sky, did no harm to crops, people and livestock, so they were left alone.

Secretary Zeng and Mayor Hei suggested that they first go to the bamboo forest near Makuzhai Village to observe. Maku Village is a village inhabited by the Hani people, and the surrounding forest vegetation is well protected. The villages where the Hani people live usually like to be built halfway up the mountain. The dense forests on the top of the mountain can provide sufficient water sources. The water flows through the village and into the terraces below the village.

The Hani people have a simple understanding of the relationship between forests, water sources, terraced fields and people. They often say that "people depend on food to support themselves, and rice depends on water to grow. There are only a few trees on the mountains, but there is no rice and grain below the mountains." The houses in Makuzhai Village are located on both sides of a creek. In order to make full use of water energy, the villagers built many water mill houses on the streams, forming a very unique landscape. After the streams flow out of the village, they flow into layers of tens of thousands of acres of terraced fields.

In the evening, each villager in Maku Village prepared a table of meals and set up a long street banquet on a hilltop in the village to entertain guests like Liu Jiazhu and others from Kunming. Everyone sat on the ground, drank Hani rice wine, and ate wild vegetables picked from the mountains and local farm food. The village was filled with laughter and laughter. When he was in high spirits, Liu Jiazhu found a white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterfly standing on his wine glass, drinking with its clockwork-like siphonic mouthparts. Liu Jiazhu joked to the people around him: "Look, butterflies can also eat wine!" Unexpectedly, the village chief next to him curled his lips disdainfully: "Teacher Liu, you are so rare and strange. We have too many butterflies here! They often fly here There were butterflies all over us, flying around our homes, and even when we were walking down the street. The bamboo forest around the village was full of butterflies."

This surprised Liu Jiazhu. Early the next morning, Liu Jiazhu and Zhou Xuesong, led by Yang Shaoke, went up to the back mountain of Maku Village. There is a large bamboo forest on the back mountain, which is lush and green. The main bamboo species is Indosasa sinica. This is a kind of loose bamboo. Because of its loose growth, it is easier for people to walk and observe in the bamboo forest. Chinese big knot bamboo is distributed in large areas in Malipo County, Pingbian Miao Autonomous County, Hekou Yao Autonomous County, Jinping Miao, Yao and Dai Autonomous County and other places in southern Yunnan. It grows in low mountain areas with an altitude of 900 meters to 1,400 meters. It is a wild bamboo species with strong vitality and the height of the bamboo can reach about 20 meters. Because the bamboo shoots taste very bitter, the locals call it Bitter Bamboo.

Countless white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies dance in and out of the bamboo forest. Liu Jiazhu and Zhou Xuesong stared at several female white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies staying on the bamboo leaves, observing from a distance. Several hours passed, and they sat almost motionless on the bamboo leaves. When other butterflies lay eggs, they always fly gracefully, lay a few eggs on this leaf, and then fly to another leaf to lay a few more eggs. Is the egg-laying behavior of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly different from other butterflies? They tiptoed close to the White-sleeved Arrow-ringed Butterfly that was resting on the back of a bamboo leaf. A closer look revealed that it was indeed laying eggs. There are many milky white eggs neatly left on the back of the emerald green bamboo leaves. They counted more than a dozen eggs-laden leaves, and each white-sleeved arrow butterfly produced about 120 eggs. Liu Jiazhu and Zhou Xuesong were very excited to finally figure out the host plant of the white-sleeved arrow-ring butterfly.

In order to find more convincing evidence, they began to look for and observe the larvae feasting on bamboo leaves - almost all of them were larvae of various ages of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly. The green pupae of the arrow-ringed butterfly hang under some bamboo leaves. It turns out that the host plant of the white-sleeved arrow-ring butterfly is Chinese giant bamboo. One of the reasons why there are so many white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies at the bottom of the saddle has finally been found. The Chinese giant bamboos all over the mountains and plains provide abundant food resources for the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterfly, ensuring the food needs of many larvae.

There are so many butterflies that if you wave a bamboo stick towards the butterfly group, you can hit more than a dozen of them

In June 2005, Liu Jiazhu, Zhou Xuesong and Garry Shook, a foreign teacher from Southwest Forestry University , went to Ma'andi again to observe and shoot ecological photos and documentaries of the White-sleeved Arrow-ringed Butterfly. Garry Shook is a retired professor at the University of California, USA, who has long studied insects. After hearing about the spectacle of the saddle-bottom butterfly outbreak, he decided to join the research team to investigate. This time they plan to observe the reproductive behavior of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly according to altitude.

As soon as they arrived near Ladeng Village, they were overwhelmed by the white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies flying in the sky. There are white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies everywhere on the road and in the villages. The chickens raised by the villagers are calmly pecking at the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies beside the road. Even the clumsy domestic ducks are also preying on the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies in clusters. The white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies that gathered on the road were crushed by passing cars and their bodies were scattered all over the ground. Some naughty children waved bamboo sticks at the discs, and more than a dozen butterflies fell to the ground crookedly. Ladeng Village is 900 meters above sea level, which is the lower limit of the natural distribution of Chinese giant bamboo. The temperature is much higher than that of Ma'andi. The white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterfly emerges more than ten days earlier here than elsewhere. Almost all the eggs of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly are laid on the back side of bamboo leaves, which is very hidden. After leaving Ladeng Village, the research team moved to Maguaitang Village. There is a large bamboo forest near the village, covering an area of ??more than 1,000 acres. Liu Jiazhu, Zhou Xuesong and Garry Shook walked into the bamboo forest and began to observe and photograph the pupation, mating and other behaviors of the arrow-ringed butterflies for several days. According to the observation statistics of the research team, only 10% of the male butterflies have the opportunity to mate. Only lucky competitors can successfully pass their genes to the next generation. But it is this lucky 10% of male butterflies that make the saddle bottom dominated by the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies.

Will such a large number of white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies and their larvae cause harm to the Chinese giant bamboo? How many larvae are there on a bamboo plant? The research team conducted sampling statistics on the density of adult and larvae of butterflies in Chinese knotty bamboo. In addition to 2-3 butterflies laying eggs, each bamboo also has 200-300 larvae. However, the bamboo leaves did not have all the leaves eaten. The phenomenon of light and growth are basically normal.

The mortality rate of white-sleeved arrow butterfly larvae is very high. Liu Jiazhu marked and identified a group of 25 larvae that had just hatched two days ago. I checked the count 3 days later and only the smallest one was left. This larva managed to survive by hiding in the cracks of the petiole. The research team roughly counted the natural enemies they observed in the larval stage of the arrowhead butterfly. From the eggs onwards, ants prey on them and parasitic wasps parasitize them. The slightly larger larvae become prey for wasps, mantis lizards, frogs and toads, and birds. Without the constraints of these natural enemies, the number of white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies at the bottom of the saddle would definitely be even more alarming.

Exploring the Secret of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly Outbreak

According to the memories of local cadres and villagers, the first major outbreak of the White-sleeved Arrow Butterfly in Ma'andi was in May 1992, and it has happened almost every year since then. It happens in the months between spring and summer and has been going on for over ten years now. According to ecological principles, if the number of a certain animal suddenly increases explosively, it must be that the factors that restrict it in the environment have changed significantly, or that its habitat has increased significantly. After such an outbreak occurs, it usually returns to its original normal state within a certain period of time. Why do Saddleback butterflies have such large populations every year and last for many years? After more than ten years of field observation and visits, by June 2008, members of the research team had made a comprehensive analysis of the local terrain, climate, host plants and the living habits of the arrow-ringed butterfly, and figured out the basic context. Ma'andi Township is located in the southern extension of Ailao Mountain. It is a tropical low-mountain area with long summer and no winter, which provides excellent climate conditions for various butterflies to successfully complete the replacement of generations and survive the winter safely. The host plant of the white-sleeved arrow-ring butterfly is Bamboo sinensis, a wild bamboo species with strong natural diffusion ability. It has strong vitality and a wide distribution area. After household quotas were implemented, local grain production increased, and villagers gradually gave up cultivated land on distant hillside areas. Chinese giant bamboos grew in large numbers on abandoned hillside areas and were overgrown with miscellaneous trees. The local people had the opportunity to recuperate and recuperate from Chinese giant bamboos. After many years of continuous observation, it has not been found that the large number of white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterflies in the local area has harmed the bamboo to death, which also indirectly confirms this analysis.

After more than ten years of observation, Liu Jiazhu, Zhou Xuesong and others found that there are also species such as white-banded sawflies, corrugated-eyes butterflies, and curtain-eye butterflies flying together with the white-sleeved arrow-ring butterflies. However, the number of They are far inferior to the White-sleeved Arrow Ring Butterfly. The species of butterflies at the bottom of the saddle are also extremely rich. Members of the research team have successively discovered the beaked swallowtail butterfly, the rod-beaked butterfly, the swallowtail butterfly, the oblique-banded ring butterfly, the purple-spotted ringed butterfly, the golden skirt butterfly, the beautiful swallowtail butterfly, the withered leaf butterfly, Catalpa leaf butterfly, phoenix-tailed butterfly...and other species. Liu Jiazhu once photographed butterflies of the opposite sex in one day in the Qingshui River Valley with clusters of waterfalls, such as the purple spotted butterfly, the superior spotted butterfly, the hidden striped white butterfly, the white butterfly, the dragon lady's eye butterfly, the pearl-covered butterfly and other butterflies. According to rough statistics, there are more than 400 butterfly species in Ma'andi Township, which covers an area of ??only about 300 square kilometers.

Brigadier Evans, a British butterfly scholar, said this in the book "Butterfly Identification of India": "The Indian Empire is the most ideal place in the world to study butterflies. It has extreme heat and cold, humidity and drought, Deserts and lush forests, low-lying plains and high mountains, as well as changeable plant communities and distinct seasons. "Most of this passage also applies to Ma'andi, and can be used to analyze the rich variety of Ma'andi butterflies. reason. The altitude of Longbo River in Ma'andi Township is only more than 200 meters, while the highest peak of Wutai Mountain is more than 3,000 meters. The vertical zone changes with obvious height differences, complex and diverse small-area habitats, low-latitude tropical climate, and distinct seasonal changes of dry and wet are all ideal for butterflies. Favorable conditions have been created for survival and reproduction.

In the past 20 years or so, many places in the south have been catching butterflies and making butterfly paintings and butterfly specimens. A large number of butterflies have been caught in Hainan Island, Xishuangbanna and other places. However, Ma'andi is located on the border and has inconvenient transportation, so Butterfly did not suffer such a disaster. Although butterfly traders once came here to buy butterfly specimens, the white-sleeved arrow-ringed butterfly once sold for 50 cents a piece at its most expensive, but the villagers felt it was not cost-effective, so no one gradually caught and sold it. This also inadvertently protects local butterflies.

Ma'andi has beautiful scenery and simple folk customs. Under the premise of paying attention to protection, butterfly watching and nature tourism may become a unique eco-tourism project in Ma'andi Township in the future. (Excerpted from "National Geography of China", written by Han Lianxian)

Research influence

Butterflies are graceful and graceful, and people are fascinated by them. Poems and essays throughout the ages, In painting and decoration, butterflies are an important subject. Xie Yi, a poet of the Northern Song Dynasty, composed 300 butterfly poems and was known as Xie Butterfly. The Tang Dynasty poet Xu Wei's "Qilu·Butterfly" is well-known: "The ethereal caterpillar sheds its shell slightly/cannot bear the heavy smoke and the falling rain/a beautiful branch to study abroad/a few spring breezes to fly//prevent every worry about the chicken and bird's mouth/love the fragrance "Pian Wao Qi Luo Yi/How can ruthlessness explain Guan Hun Meng/Mo Xin Zhuang Zhou talks about right and wrong." It can be seen that butterflies have long been praised as "the beauties of the insect kingdom", "flying flowers" and "splendid pictures of life".

In 1961, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of my country was preparing to issue a set of stamps featuring 20 species of Chinese butterflies. According to the opinions of butterfly experts, there must be a stamp of the golden-spotted swallowtail butterfly. However, specimens of this butterfly could not be found in China for a while, so the pattern designers had to resort to foreign materials. At that time, in the Insect Specimen Collection Room of the British Museum of Natural History, the instructor proudly introduced: "This beautiful and precious butterfly is called 'Golden-spotted Swallowtail'. Its origin is in Wuyi Mountain, China. Our museum is the only one in the world." This kind of butterfly specimen can only be found here." After many years of inspection and research by insect experts, pictures and specimens of the butterfly butterfly were collected in Ma'andi, Jinping, Yunnan. According to expert research, the Ma'andi Butterfly Valley is the place where the "Golden-spotted Papilion" originated.

Since 2009, major media, TV stations, newspapers and magazines have successively filmed and reported on "China·Red River Butterfly Valley". In August 2009, the "Open Sesame" column of CCTV Children's Channel broadcast the program "Exploring Butterfly Valley"; from May to June 2010, the CCTV program team was intensively filming "China·Red River Butterfly Valley". After the production is completed, It was broadcast on CCTV 1, 4 and 10; in March 2009, an article titled "Yunnan Ma'andi·China's Butterfly Valley" was published in "China National Geographic" magazine; in September 2009, it was published in "China National Geographic" magazine "The Discovery of Butterfly Eden in Yunnan" was published in a special article in the book "Influence"; in December 2009, the twelfth issue of "Chinese Butterfly" magazine published "Development and Utilization of Butterfly Resources and Survival Landscape at Jinping Ma'an Bottom, Yunnan"; in January 2010 , "Red River" magazine published "Conception of Jinping Ma'andi Butterfly Valley Eco-tourism". With the successive broadcasts and reports by various media, television stations, newspapers and magazines, people began to have an interest in the mysterious and beautiful "China·Red River Butterfly Valley" understood.

Ma'andi is located in the east of Jinping County, bordering on the east, south and west with Yidi Township, Basa County, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam's Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Yaoshan Township, Fengtu County, Laizhou Province. The line is 156 kilometers long, with a land area of ??284.7 square kilometers. It is 123 kilometers away from Mengzi, the capital of Honghe Prefecture, 148 kilometers away from Jinping County, and only 98 kilometers away from the national port estuary. The highest peak of Mount Wutai in Ma'andi is 3,013 meters, the second highest peak in southern Yunnan, and the lowest altitude is only 130 meters. The township's forest coverage rate is as high as 70%, with a nature reserve of 116,000 acres and an average annual rainfall of 2,500 mm. Due to the large altitude difference, the three-dimensional climate is more obvious. The northwest part of the territory is the Watershed National Nature Reserve, where there are national first- and second-level protected plants such as red bean sprouts, philodendrons, Fujian cypress, feather pine, Liriodendron tulipifera, and mangolia; there are national first- and second-level wild protection plants. Animals include monitor lizards, pythons, cobras, loris, pangolins, concave green turtles, blue sheep, muntjacs, white pheasants, etc. and various butterflies. In the dense virgin forest, there are various precious orchids, medicinal materials, grass fruits, fungi, fungus, white root, bamboo shoots, green ferns and other wild plants. The forest resources are rich, the biodiversity is extremely well preserved, and there are many kinds of rare birds and animals. , known as "nature's gene bank". The territory is rich in water resources, with cascading waterfalls and rushing rivers. The tourist resources and attractions that can be developed include the transnational wonders with the crack as the national boundary - Tiansheng Bridge, Wutai Mountain Waterfall Group, Ancient Tea Tree Community, Pinghe Grassland, Wutai Mountain Exploration, and the unique Hani Mushroom houses, terraced fields and colorful ethnic customs. This is an original eco-tourism secret that integrates natural landscapes, scientific expeditions and cultural landscapes.

(Jinping County Tourism Bureau)