BR. J. ENT. NAT. HIST., 7: 1994 |*| 



HAWK-MOTHS IN HONG KONG, APRIL 1993, 

 WITH ECOLOGICAL NOTES 



P. Waring and R. C. Thomas 



1366 Lincoln Road, Werrington, Peterborough, PE4 6LS 



and K. H. K. Li 



A5 2/F Jubilee Gardens, Tan Kwai Tsuen Road, Hung Shui Kiu, 

 Yuen Long, New Territories, Hong Kong 



Hong Kong and the New Territories have been much in the news recently because they 

 are due to revert to Chinese rule in 1997 and preparations for this are now underway. 

 The city skyscrapers in Hong Kong are famous. The large tracts of native vegetation, 

 though mostly secondary and greatly affected by man, hold much of interest 

 entomologically, but the existence of these areas is so little known outside the country 

 that it comes as a surprise to many that they exist at all. Some areas have been set aside 

 for nature conservation and it is to be hoped that these will not be adversely affected by 

 the change in administration. During annual leave in Hong Kong in April 1993, we were 

 able to visit some of these areas and see the wildlife they support, including the moths. 

 From 5 to 18 April 1993, we were able to operate a Robinson pattern 125-W mercury 

 vapour light trap on a total of ten nights at five sites within Hong Kong Island and the 

 New Territories. We recorded a great many species of moths and representative 

 specimens were collected, most of which will need to be set and even dissected before 

 they can be identified. Anticipating that this will take some time, this paper 

 concentrates on the hawk-moths (Sphingidae) that we encountered. 



The hawk-moths of Hong Kong were reviewed recently by Tennent (1992) who 

 light-trapped in Hong Kong over a period of 18 months from June 1989 to November 

 1990, recording 63 species. We are able to contribute the following additional records. 

 In addition to light-trapping, we made brief searches for eggs and larvae. A total 

 of 16 species of hawk-moths was recorded during our visit and one new species is 

 added to the list published by Tennent. Hawk-moths were recorded from sites 

 additional to those covered by Tennent, including the mangrove swamps at Mai 

 Po and coastal scrub-land at Long Harbour in the New Territories. During our 

 visit we met up with Mr Kent Li who joined us for visits to Mai Po and the woodland 

 at Tai Po Kau. Kent has a mercury vapour light but no light trap. Since 1986 he has 

 paid a number of visits to outdoor lights in various locations in the New Territories 

 and has found and reared the early stages of a number of species. Drawing on this 

 experience he has kindly provided background material on the species we encountered 

 and this is included here. 



Repulse Bay, Hong Kong Island 



Our initial base on arrival in Hong Kong was a thirteenth-storey apartment in a 

 tower block overlooking Repulse Bay and backing on to a hill-side covered in native 

 scrub. The hill-side rose above the tower block and the vegetation was within 100 m 

 horizontally from the balcony of our apartment. The Robinson light trap was operated 

 on the balcony all night on the nights of 8 and 9 April. A number of different moth 

 species were seen amongst the scrub during day-time walks but only four moths reached 

 the light trap. These included a noctuid and a pyralid on 8 April and a geometrid 

 and a pyralid on 9 April. No hawk-moths were seen and no moths at all on 7 April 

 which was cool, wet and windy. 



