Why does Taiwan's reputation as the "Butterfly Kingdom" go back to history?

Butterfly stickers

Flowers bloom and butterflies come. This beautiful scene arranged by Creation for the earth is on the verge of extinction. Summer is here, but how many spring and summer have you not seen butterflies fluttering? Taiwan once had the reputation of "Butterfly Kingdom" and has a history of more than 400 species of butterflies. Unfortunately, now these are only attributed to "history". Although Taiwan is making every effort to "rescue" butterflies, once the species produced after a long period of natural evolution become extinct, no amount of money can be exchanged for high technology. Butterflies, which have suffered from indiscriminate fishing and logging for hundreds of years, are difficult to fly into the flowers again.

The butterfly is not just a decoration of the landscape, as a part of the ecological environment, it shoulders the mission of pollinating plants and becoming food for other species, and if this ring is broken, it will cause a series of problems that we cannot yet predict, as scientists say: a butterfly in the Amazon jungle flapping its wings will trigger a tornado in Texas in a few months.

10 million butterflies per order

How did Taiwan's "Butterfly Kingdom" get lost? Indiscriminate fishing plus indiscriminate logging.

A hundred years ago, after the Japanese colonial rulers experienced the beauty of Taiwan's butterflies, they transported butterflies to Japan in a desperate way. Nantou Puli Town is the distribution center of butterflies, there are more than 40 butterfly plus workshops in the small town, and trucks of butterflies are transported from all over Taiwan, where they are divided into three levels, the first level makes specimens, the second level does ornamental butterflies, and the third level makes stickers - colorful shiny butterfly wings can be pasted into wedding photos and world famous paintings. The Musheng Insect Museum in Puli still exhibits butterfly stickers from that year, including the famous oil paintings "Gleaning" and "Napoleon Crossing the Alps", etc., whose realistic skills amaze the viewers.

In addition to trade, Japan has stepped up its research on butterflies in Taiwan, and every summer, Japanese teachers and students come to Taiwan to observe butterflies and collect specimens. The Japanese set up a "Specialty Co., Ltd." in Puli to collect butterfly specimens and send them to the Entomological Research Institute in Japan. Japanese scholars published new species such as "Asakura Phoenix Butterfly" and "Asakura Little Purple Butterfly" based on puli specimens, and achieved the glory of biological research in the world. At the same time, children in Taiwan are placed in the situation of seeing butterflies and only knowing "five hairs and three pieces". At the end of the year, the territory is divided, and when the butterflies are feathered, each person has a net and catches the butterflies to exchange for money. Some children follow their parents to the mountains to camp and catch butterflies, so tired that they fall to their knees and do not stop, because butterflies are living expenses and tuition.

Later, the United States also joined the butterfly trade in Taiwan, and in the 1950s, the American Walmart Company placed an order for 10 million butterflies. By the end of the 1970s, Taiwan's butterfly species and populations had declined. With the rise of environmental protection concepts and alternatives, the butterfly trade in Japan and the United States has declined, and the number of butterfly catchers has decreased. However, the subsequent rise of fruit, tea and betel nut cultivation in Taiwan has cut down a large number of native forests and plants, the home of butterflies is covered with cash crops, and the beauty of Taiwanese butterflies has frozen into specimens.

Restore native plants

In recent years, Taiwan has struggled to rebuild on the ruins of the "Butterfly Kingdom." Reconstruction is not something that can be achieved through policies, funds and experts, but first of all, people's perceptions are changed through ecological education. Nantou County is Taiwan's "butterfly county", the rich vegetation of the mountains and the clear stream are the "birth beds" of butterflies, and the Nanfeng community was once an "important town" for butterfly hunting. Now the Taiwan Museum has taken the documentary "The Vitality of Spreading Wings: A Living Gem in the Misty Forest" to the primary school in Nanfeng to show it to establish the concept of loving butterflies for children. There are also foundations that set up ecological classes here to persuade butterfly catchers to transform into ecological tour guides, take people to enjoy butterflies for a living, and gradually transform the butterfly fishing economy here into the direction of eco-tourism.

In addition, the plants needed to restore butterfly hatching are mostly local grasses that are not good-looking, such as the weedy typhoon grass, which is the birth bed of the black shade butterfly. Volunteers have worked hard to plant grass species such as the three-line butterfly and the Taiwan macular butterfly on Jiannan Road in Taipei City, which have been maintained for 5 years and produced more than 100 kinds of butterflies. It's just that these grasses are constantly criticized as weeds, and they will be removed, and volunteers will continue to replant, constantly repeating that plants are not only ornamental, but also a part of the ecological environment, and grass is the "confinement center" of butterflies. If you only covet the beauty of the plant' appearance, or even blindly introduce alien species, it will make other local species such as butterflies and birds homeless, have no food to eat, and face the disaster of extinction.

Butterfly viewing has become popular

Taiwan's butterfly "peak season" is around the Dragon Boat Festival, according to Taiwan media reports, after years of efforts, there are now many places where butterfly shadows have reappeared. In the past, in order to make gun butts and sleepers, the Japanese colonial rulers used to cultivate iron knife wood here, which is the ingredient for the larvae of yellow butterflies, and the yellow butterfly landscape was formed here. In recent years, the plants needed for the yellow butterfly have been restored here, and the yellow butterfly dances with it.

Miaoli Zhunan Coastal Recreation Area has Si's purple spotted butterfly appeared, the neighboring community launched a tour guide interpretation service, follow the tour guide to enjoy the butterfly, not only take away a few photos, but understand the past and present life of the purple butterfly species, and increase biological knowledge. Volunteers from Xihu Town, Changhua County, spent 3 years on the banks of Dongluo Creek to create a butterfly viewing trail, volunteers simulated the environment required for butterfly breeding, and successfully reproduced more than 30 kinds of butterflies such as small purple spotted butterflies, peacock butterflies, yellow butterflies, Kenting small gray butterflies, bamboo red butterflies, etc., becoming a must-visit "secret place" for butterfly appreciators.

The imperial moth of Yunlin Ancient Pit has also been successfully re-bred this year. The emperor moth is distributed in the middle altitude area, the moth's wings are reddish brown, the end resembles a snake's head, can intimidate predators, also known as the snake's head moth. The imperial moth can spread its wings to reach 20 to 30 centimeters, and the pattern is gorgeous, from the Japanese occupation period to the 1970s and 1980s, it was a sought-after commodity purchased by Japanese merchants. Later, Taiwan banned the export of butterflies, but the emperor moth also disappeared in the wild, or Yunlin's former butterfly catchers planted ginger mother trees and eggplant winter trees on their own land, set up wooden pavilions, and created an environment suitable for the emperor moth, so that the emperor moth reappeared in the world.

When the butterflies are gone, enjoying the butterflies has become a new trend in Taiwan. The epidemic has led to social attention and protection of the butterfly species, hoping that this concern originates from the scientific understanding of the environment, rather than the new round of "seeing butterflies like seeing banknotes". (Chen Xiaoxing)