Studies On Biology Of Teinopalpus Aureus Guangxiensis Chou Et Zhou

Teinopalpus aureus , one of "three unique butterflies in the world", is distributed in the southeast of Asia, with five subspecies , four in China .Many researchers have studied on the species in this eighty-year since it was found in Lianping of Guangdong Province by Mell in 1923. ZHONGYUANHELANG (1958) thought the plant of daphne is the larva's food plant; Dr.Jiang Guo-fang (1997-1999) of Academy of Sciences of Guangxi Province have studied on the male's copulation and feeding behavior of Teinopalpus aureus, and analyzed its antenna receptors under electron microscope; Huang Shou-shan (2000),Prof. in lab of insect ecology of South China Agricultural University, found one egg in Michelia sp., but nothing more was reported after that; Suguru Igarashi(2000.8-2001.4) got eggs of this species through artificial pairing and forcing oviposition, in sequence he knew the morphology of larva and pupa after succeeding in breeding with many kinds of magnoliaceous plants. However, because Teinopalpus aureus is often active in the mist on mountains, It has been still a riddle for researchers to know its habit in the wild. In order to find out how Teinopalpus aureus lives in nature, from April 2003 to November 2004 we carried a research on Teinopalpus aureus guangxiensis, one of subspecies, in Dayao Mountain nature reserve in Jinxiu,Guangxi Province.After two-year efforts, greatly we succeeded in uncovering the biology of Teinopalpus aureus guangxiensis, including the aspects of habits in the wild, life history, natural enemies etc.. According to former researchers'discoveries, we began with the possible food plants, magnoliaceous plants, searched among the areas where magnoliaceous plants distribute, searching objects included all plant species in the underlayer of the woods and the magnoliaceous plants in the superstratum.In the process of search, 6 eclosion or death pupae were found on the magnoliaceous plants, and 12 pupae(2 living ones) found on other plants. Then we observed the living pupae continuously in day, and let them in the natural state. When we were observing, we took notes as much as possible about statistics of temperature, time, relative humidity etc. and change process with the help of camera. The key work was to found the egg of Teinopalpus aureus guangxiensis.. For that, in the period of butterflies activity on mountains, we chose two peaks with butterflies often flying on for all-day-observation, besides, we climbed up the tallest plants for enlarging visual scope. With the help of telescope, recorder etc., we continuously took notes about all behaviors observed by eyes in day, including temperature, time, light conditions etc.. With all efforts we were fortunate to see females ovipositing in some plants, laters we found twenty eggs in all when climbing up these plant. Like the above methods, we chose two of these plants with eggs on for continuous observation in day(from 5:00 to 21:00), the objects included eggs, larvae after hatch, and other possiblely related animals, and took notes. To the collection of statistics and notes we made a classification among them according to some ranges of temperature and time, and the similarity of light conditions, then using SPSS and ORIGIN to do some frequencies analysis. Here we show: there are two generations of Teinopalpus aureus guangxiensis in Dayao Mountain., the first occurs from May to the middle of September, the second from the middle of August to the beginning of June in the next year; The female of first generation lays eggs on Parakmeria nitidacw.w.Smith Law and Michelia chapaensis Danely in Journ.Bot, but the female of second one only chooses Michelia chapaensis Danely in Journ.Bot to oviposite, which shows that the female of second generation has the choosing habit when laying eggs; Egg is oviposited one by one , and they distribute in the plants separately with the form of "one branch, one egg on one leaf"; The above plants are larva's food plants, they are from different genus; The larva'feeding behavior is regulated by endogenous and exogenous factors, such as temperature , light condition etc.. With the law of light condition changing in day, there are three obvious peaks in the curve of feeding time, that is, the larva usually feeds at 6:00-7:00, 11:00-13:00 and 18:00-20:00. There are five instars in the stage of larva, before pupation the fully mature last larva stops feeding and drops down by itself from the food plant to the ground directly, then following the travel for a safe pupation position; In the winter of Dayao mountain there is a diapause on pupa under the stress of low temperature and humidity. After almost-seven-month-development of diapause, the growth-development begins in April or May of the next year, and then eclosion happens after a period of time and butterflies occur in the following period of time. In Dayao Mountain, the first generational butterfly occurs from April to June,the second occurs from August to September. It is hard to observe a female in the wild, It seems that the number of female is much less than that of male, and an abnormal sexual ratio phenomenon takes place in the species population; The male activity on mountains is easy to impact by temperature and light condition, according to frequencies analysis, its activity peak is from 7:00a.m. to 9:00a.m., and the activity peak of temperature is 17℃to 24℃; The male often alight on leaves ,perching there for the female, in the process it performs obvious territoriality; The plant of Lyonia ovalifolia Drude var.Hand.-Mazz. is the male's nectar plant, whose white flowers blooming in May in Dayao Mountain, it does not consist with the habit of chasing after blue objects. In nature Teinopalpus aureus guangxiensis has a lot of natural enemies who decrease the number of its population greatly. Just 10 per cent of the laid eggs can become butterflies after eclosion in the end. After numerous observation in the wild, some natural enemies are identified affirmably as birds, katydids and true bugs. Besides, there are some other kinds of natural enemies, such as parasitical wasps, pathogenic creatures and so on, which impact the butterfly population as well, studies on the relationship between Teinopalpus aureus and its enemies is valuable . We do not approve the idea which supports to degrade the protection grade of Teinopalpus aureus when reviewing the legal list of wild animals of priority protection in China, before we know the endangerment status of this species. Because,to this kind of famous butterfly, any sudden changes will bring troubles for its population. From now on, the known habitats of Teinopalpus aureus guangxiensis Chou et Zhou are not in the reserve area. For protecting the endangered rare species, we propose that the habitats (3000ha.) should be enclosed to the Dayao Mountain Nature Reserve, and be protected effectively by laws.