Science Fiction Network, May 10 (Kang Wenying) "A butterfly flapping its wings may cause a hurricane to a distant country." So what if 150 million butterflies flare up their wings together?
Recently, the staff of China's Red River Butterfly Valley Administration monitored: around May 20, the first batch of butterflies will be concentrated feathering, the peak of the outbreak is about May 25 to June 10, the total of up to 150 million. It is expected to be the largest butterfly outbreak in the region in a decade.
Have you ever seen the world of butterflies? Imagine thousands of butterflies dancing in the emerald green forest, listening quietly, and you may hear the wind blowing through the dense forest, the stream ripples, and the butterflies flapping their wings.
"If you bloom, the butterflies come", here, flocks of butterflies surround you, if you look closely, maybe you will also see butterflies that break out of the cocoon, which is a shock from life!
Located in Ma'andi Township, Jinping County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China's Honghe Butterfly Valley was found by scientists in 2009 that there are more than 400 species of butterflies in the valley, ranking first in the world, of which the arrow ring butterfly is the main species. Every year from the end of May to the beginning of June, the outbreak season, tens of millions of arrow ring butterflies burst out in large numbers, flying along the stream and in the valley, forming a rare and extremely romantic natural landscape.
It is mainly distributed in southern China, with a large body, wingspan of up to 100 to 110 mm, the front of the forewing is yellowish brown, there is a circle of arrow clusters of black spots around the front and back wings, and the ventral midfield of the wing has a longitudinal row of reddish-brown circular spots (eye spots). The main host of the Arrow Ring Butterfly in the Red River Butterfly Valley is the Chinese macrophylla bamboo of the Poaceae family, which can lay 80 to 120 eggs at a time, and after the eggs hatch into larvae, they also mainly rely on bamboo for food.
Yang Darong, a researcher at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chairman of the Yunnan Entomological Association, said: "Rich forest resources and an average annual rainfall of 2500 mm make this place a natural gene bank of animals and plants, especially rich butterfly resources. ”
Honghe Prefecture Jinping Saddle Bottom, the highest peak in the territory of Wutai Mountain main peak altitude of 3012 meters, dense forest, high mountains and deep valleys, forest coverage rate of up to 70%, at the same time water resources are also very rich, with "how high the mountain, how high the water" reputation. The northwest of here is the Watershed National Nature Reserve, which grows national first- and second-class protected plants and wild protected animals, has a wide variety of rare birds and exotic animals, and has a complete preservation of biodiversity, which is known as "nature's gene bank".
It is precisely because of the natural ecological environment and diversity of plants in Jinping Saddle Bottom in Red River State that it provides good host conditions for the reproduction of butterflies, in addition, butterflies have special memories or genetic genes, so there are tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of butterflies every year, they can accurately return to the "hometown" of the saddle bottom and feather here. These conditions eventually led to the Butterfly Valley of China's Red River.
Yang Zhenwen, director of the Red River Butterfly Valley Museum, explains: "150 million is not a very definite number, but is speculated through monitoring data from the sampling site. ”
Zhou Chengli, an associate researcher at the Institute of Resources and Insects of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, believes that "like many other insect species, intermittent outbreaks of butterfly species populations are not uncommon, such as the migratory pink butterfly in southern Yunnan, as well as some rarer species such as the Emei Mountain dead leaf butterfly and the black purple butterfly. ”
Therefore, this year's forecast data of the Red River Butterfly Valley is higher than in previous years, which may reflect the characteristics of intermittent outbreaks of butterflies.
In the face of this ultra-high explosive gathering of butterflies, Zhou Chengli explained that during the large outbreak, butterflies eat a large number of bamboo leaves during their growth, which will have a certain impact on the bamboo forest, but generally will not constitute an ecological disaster. Yang Darong's research team also found based on years of detection and research that in the face of the feeding stress of the larvae of the arrow ring butterfly, the continuous bamboo forest will activate the defense mechanism, and the bamboo that has been eaten will often absorb more nutrients, and the growth trend is better than that of the bamboo in the same forest that has not been eaten.
At the same time, in order to protect the ecological environment of butterfly valley, the management department of butterfly valley in Jinping County strengthens management, carries out environmental protection publicity, and does a good job in butterfly breeding and breeding to ensure the healthy life cycle of butterflies, and make full preparations for the upcoming tourism climax set off by the butterfly outbreak season.