District 18 News
Written by: Zeng Fengting
2021-04-11 19:33
Last update date: 2021-04-11 19:39
As Lantau Island promotes "Lantau Tomorrow" and other development projects, infrastructure projects are being carried out in the vicinity, and the ecological environment is affected.
In the past, government environmental research has always focused on mammals and birds, but has neglected the ecological importance of insects and invertebrates.
A group launched a large search of insects and invertebrates in the Lantau community last year to assist in the recording of information on such organisms. It is also hoped that the government will pay more attention to related species in the pre-development work in the future.
During the investigation, it was discovered for the first time that a new species of moths were suspected to be infested in Tung Chung. It was very likely that they belonged to a moth unique to Hong Kong. For the first time, 17 insect species including cockroaches and bees were also found.
"Environmental Protection Fund "Insects" New Discovery in South Lantau" Lantau Community Insect and Invertebrate Search-The public participation survey is funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Campaign Committee and sponsored by the Hong Kong Outdoor Ecological Education Association.
A total of 207 people participated in the investigation. From May to November last year, a total of 291 searches were conducted in three rounds at various locations on Lantau Island for a total of 63 days (that is, an average of 4.6 times per day).
The constant survey areas include Tung Chung, Mui Wo, and Discovery Bay; Pui O, Shui Hau, Tong Fuk and Tai O were conducted in one of the rounds.
The survey was recorded using the international network platform iNaturalist.
From 2008 to 2020, the platform has only 350,000 biological and ecological observation records in Hong Kong, and all biological and ecological observation records on Lantau Island are only about 25,000.
But in this investigation, it only took 63 days to collect nearly 12,000 observation records.
164 research-level species were recorded in Lantau for the first time
In this observation, the investigator found 1,367 species, of which 710 species reached the research level (the observation date, location, photos, sound records and non-captive wild animals are required, and they can only be verified by users of the iNaturalist platform. Achieved research level), and there are 164 species records reaching research level. This is the first time recorded in the Lantau area of Hong Kong.
During the investigation, it was discovered for the first time that a new species of moth was suspected to have appeared in Tung Chung, most likely it was a moth unique to Hong Kong.
Su Yingjian, a Ph.D. from the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, pointed out that after finding the species, he approached Hong Kong moth expert Roger Kendrick to analyze and found that there was a moth that could not match any species already described in the subfamily.
Roger Kendrick said that samples need to be collected for comparison and analysis, so this moth species has the opportunity to be discovered for the first time in the world.
In addition, 17 insect species including cockroaches and bees were discovered for the first time in Hong Kong.
Su Yingjian believes that there are few records of insect and invertebrate research data in Hong Kong in the past.
In the records of iNaturalist in the past 10 years, Lepidoptera (such as butterflies and moths) are constantly observed and recorded, while Orthoptera (such as grasshoppers) and Diptera (such as flies) are less noticed.
However, this survey breaks existing phenomena. For example, in the past, there were only about 900 "orthopteran" research-level records in Hong Kong, this time 195 records of the same level were recorded, and "diptera" also recorded 208. Data Average compared to the past.
Su Yingjian believes that this survey can supplement the previous lack of data on insects and invertebrates in Hong Kong.
Shen Dingrong, founder and conservation director of the Hong Kong Outdoor Ecological Education Association, mentioned that apart from the need to protect the biodiversity of rural areas, the government should not ignore some urbanized areas.
Using this survey as an example, he pointed out that many different species were also found in developing places such as Mui Wo and Tung Chung, proving that the potential value of biodiversity is still high under urbanization.
He also believes that there is no shortage of rare species in Hong Kong, such as the unique Hong Kong water worm and Zheng Kaizhen's peculiar firefly, which are all worthy of conservation.
He believes that there are still many species unique to Hong Kong to be discovered. He hopes that when the government develops Lantau Island, the preliminary investigation work will be more comprehensive, and more biodiversity indicators will be set to protect more species.
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