This page contains details about the history of moth recording in Hong Kong. The most recent recording history (from around 2003) has not been fully updated, yet; recorders since 2003 have increased dramatically, especially since iNaturalist started in 2011.
Recording: Early recording of moths in Hong Kong is poorly documented. It is likely that a European entomologist passed through Hong Kong in the mid 18th Century as some of the Papilio butterfly specimens described by Linneaus originated from Guangzhou. Material collected from Hong Kong in the mid 19th Century still exists in The Natural History Museum (NHM), London, including Fulgoraecia bowringii (Epipyropidae), Gaea variegata and Toleria chinensis (Sesiidae), the first species being named in honour of John C. Bowring, the son of one of the third Govenor of Hong Kong and an avid naturalist (MacPherson, 2000). Just who collected these specimens is not yet clear. In 1892 and 1893, J.J.Walker, a well respected entomologist serving with the British Royal Navy, was stationed in Hong Kong. He recorded butterflies and a few moths from Hong Kong Island, and noted the rare event of frost at sea level, with thick ice on the ropes of ships in the harbour, during December 1892. At the start of the 20th Century, there was further small scale recording, with a few specimens labelled Hong Kong (presumably Hong Kong Island) present in the NHM, collected by E.Wahr between 1904 and 1910. R.Mell passed through Hong Kong in 1908, on his way to a posting in Guangzhou, from where he made regular forays into the more reachable parts of Guangdong, notably Lian Ping and Ding Wu Shan, until 1921. Many species of moth were recorded, including observations on life history and new species described (e.g. Mell, 1922, 1943; Caradja & Meyrick, 1933, 1934). H.Höne also collected in Guangdong between 1921 and 1923. More active recording did not take place until the 1960s, with collecting by a team from the Bishop Museum, Honolulu (specimens collected by J.L. Gressitt in May 1965 at The University of Hong Kong and over 10,000 moths collected by W.J.Voss and two local assistants between 1964 and 1965, mostly from Tai Po Kau, Sai Kung and Castle Peak, all in the New Territories. W.J.Palmer collected from the Mid-levels on Hong Kong Island and from near Kowloon Reservoir in the late 1960s. The Hong Kong Government were also active, with P.Y.So recording agriculturally important species at Tai Lung Farm, Sheung Shui, from the early 1960s, leading to the publication of the first ever list of species within the first checklist of agricultural insects of Hong Kong (So, 1967). In the 1970s several more people undertook recording, notably D.Hill (as work for a series of books on Hong Kong Insects, although with some errors in identification and classification), A. Sommerville (from the University of Hong Kong) and the H.K.Government at Tai Lung Farm. John Tennant started recording moths in the late 1970s. The 1980s saw an upsurge in moth recording, with the first rapid survey done by a team from Oxford University in 1981 finding some 330 species in two months. Rearing work was undertaken by M. & F.Bascombe and general recording, mostly from the Peak, by A.C.Galsworthy, throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. In 1982, an updated government list was published (Lee & Winney, 1982), which listed several hundred moth species. In the late 1980s James Young and Kent Li started recording and rearing moths. In 1992, Tennant published the first moth specific paper for Hong Kong, listing the Sphingidae (hawkmoths). By the time Paul Waring visited Hong Kong in 1993, nearly 1,000 species of moth had been recorded. His visit of two weeks and a six week visit in 1994 by Roger Kendrick added a further 30 or so species. The work of the Hong Kong Government biodiversity survey contracted out to the University of Hong Kong found nearly 300 more species from recording throughout the territory in 1996 and 1997. The fieldwork for Roger Kendrick's Ph.D. thesis focussed on one site over three years, with some 230 recording events, plus another 70 or so nights work at other sites. This work added another 470 species. Together with the work done by Mark Sterling and David Mohn, accounting for an estimated further 250 species, this brought the total number of species recorded to around 2,200 species recorded by the start of 2003. Between 2003 and 2011, Roger Kendrick & Mark Sterling added a further 150 or so species, with micromoths taking centre stage. Regular moth recording took place at Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden, at villages in Lam Tsuen Valley, Tai Po, and efforts to catalogue further sites in HK started in ernest, notably at Tai Po Kau Headland Conservation Area in collaboration with Ruy Barretto, as well as at Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve (Tai Po Environmental Association, now the "Environmental Association"). Since 2011, when iNaturalist started documenting global flora and fauna observations as a citizen science tool, the Hong Kong Moths Recording Programme has aided documentation of moths in Hong Kong, and consequently attracted more people into moth recording in Hong Kong. This has become particularly noticable through the City Nature Challenge and National Moth Week initiatives. By mid 2023, the Hong Kong Moth species list count stands at 2,720 species recorded, and over 2000 contributors to the HKMRP on iNat. The Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society has started to produce books on moths of Hong Kong, starting with Kendrick & Young (2014, 2015). |
Recording effort by tetrad to survey moths in Hong Kong, 1963 to 2000.![]() |
Recorders:
Ades G.W.J. : active recording 1991-4 as part of a survey of bat diets for his Ph.D.
Aston P. : started recording in late 1996, concentrating on photographic recording. Was the first person to record the Oleander Hawkmoth Daphnis nerii in Hong Kong (Aston & Kendrick, 1998).
Barnes M.J.C. : coordinated intensive recording in the central New Territories under the auspices of the Oxford University Expedition to Hong Kong in July and August, 1981. Material collected during this expedition now resides in The Natural History Museum. More recent work by Matthew Barnes includes moth recording in Belize, and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Bascombe M.J. : intensive recording 1989-1991 plus some voucher material and many species bred, with most records appearing in Holloway (1983-1996). Also well known locally for his work on Hong Kong's butterflies (with what will become the standard reference on Hong Kong butterflies for many years to come published in 1999) and for his services to the Hong Kong Natural History Society (HKNHS Chairman, 1977-1982).
Galsworthy A.C. : intensive recording late 1980s & early 1990s; has the most comprehensive voucher material data, now mostly in The Natural History Museum, London. He prepared the first list of macromoth species for Hong Kong, which has since been added to, and this work forms the core of the forthcoming list to be published in 2004 (Galsworthy et al., in prep.). He has published several papers describing species from Hong Kong that are new to science (see above) and has more papers either in press or in preparation. Is now based in London. (BENHS member)
Hill D.S. : some recording and limited collecting in the late 1970s and early 1980s, mostly of Sphingidae. Has published several general Hong Kong insect books (Hill & Cheung, 1988; Hill, Hore & Thornton, 1982), but some moth species have been incorrectly identified (see Tennent, 1992).
Kendrick R.C. : collecting in summer 1994 (for work submitted as part of a B.Sc. degree course at the University of East Anglia (Otley College), late 1996 onwards; carrying on where Galsworthy left off (regarding species recording), and expanding the recording to microlepidoptera, as work towards his Ph.D. on the moths of Hong Kong (Kendrick, 2002). This included creating a voucher reference collection for the Dept. of Ecology & Biodiveristy, The University of Hong Kong (currently kept at Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden) and also photographing species in their natural habitats, both of which are ongoing, following the completion of the thesis. Several short papers on species newly recorded from Hong Kong have been published (Aston & Kendrick, 1998; Kendrick, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 1998d, 1998e, 1999a, 1999b, 2001a, 2001b). Now coordinating work to publish a guide book to Hong Kong Moths (Kendrick (ed.), in prep.), as well as writing up papers on the microlepidoptera of Hong Kong with Prof. Li Hou Hun (Nankai Univeristy, Tianjin; see below). (BENHS member and a life member of Butterfly Conservation, Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society and the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera)
Lau C. : As curator of the H.K.Govt's. Agriculture & Fisheries Department's (now the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department) Tai Lung Farm collection (to 1996), he was responsible for recording economically important moth species in Hong Kong from the late 1970s.
Li H.H. : Professor Li Hou Hun, who is in charge of the Lepidoptera unit at Nankai Univerisity, Tianjin, China, has made several visits to Hong Kong. Initially he was invited to attend the first South East Asian Lepidoptera Conservation symposium in September 2006, then returned with several of his students in April 2007 to study the Microlepidoptera diversity in Hong Kong. He returned for two weeks in September 2009 for further fieldwork. A number of papers on the Microlepidoptera of Hong Kong are in preparation, in press (Bai et al., Wang & Kendrick and Yuan et al.) or published (Hao et al., 2008 and Wang et al.), co-authored by his students and colleagues, together with R. C. Kendrick.
Li K.H.K. : active from the late 1980s until 1994 and again, after a break to take a degree in Environmental Biology at the Univerity of Manchester, England, from 1997. Kent Li has published several detailed papers on some of Hong Kong's more spectacular moth species (Li, 1992, 1994, 1996 & 1998). Sadly, Kent Li passed away in September 2008 after a long battle with cancer.
Mell R. : visited southern China (e.g. Ding Wu, north of Guangzhou (Tennent, 1992)) early this century. His work on Sphingidae (Mell, 1922) is a valuable addition to the knowledge of work undertaken in the area, principally due to its historical perspective.
Palmer W.J. : collected in the 1960s & early 1970s near Kowloon Reservoir and on Conduit Road, Hong Kong Island. He still maintains his collection at his home in England.
Reels G.T. : undertook regular moth survey work throughout Hong Kong as part of the Hong Kong Biodiversity Survey (1995-7), with all specimens' identification verified by A.C.Galsworthy and now kept at the Dept. of Ecology & Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, or at The Natural History Museum, London.
Sommerville A. : material, kept at the Dept. of Ecology & Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, recorded from localities on Hong Kong Island and Sai Kung, 1970-71; about 70 specimens with data labels, twice as many unlabelled.
Sterling M. : based in Hong Kong from mid 1998 to mid 2003, recording life histories of several hundred micro-moth species, as well as general moth recording on Hong Kong Island. Will publish his work in the forthcoming book on Hong Kong Moths (Kendrick (ed.), in prep.). (BENHS member)
Tennent W.J. : recorded intensively throughout Hong Kong from June 1989 until November 1990, concentrating on the hawkmoths (Sphingidae). His results have been published (Tennent, 1992).
Wahr E. : recorded in Hong Kong Island in the early 20th Century. Some of his specimens are in the main collection of The Natural History Museum, London, with collecting dates for 1904.
Waring P. : recorded intensively during a short visit in April 1993. His results on the hawkmoths have been published (Waring, Thomas & Li, 1994) as well as the second part of his results, covering the rest of the moths recorded (Waring, Thomas & Li, 1997). Responsible for co-ordinating records of Britain's threatened and scarce macromoths and for several British Entomological & Natural History Society overseas moth expeditions (BENHS President, 1994).
Yen S.H. : visited Hong Kong several times since 2000, rearing several species of Zygaenidae. Specialises in Zyganidae, Acentropinae (=Nymphulinae) and Epipleminae and assisting reviewing these groups in Kendrick (ed.), (in prep.).
Young J.J. : active for over thirty years. Has retired (very early) and had moved to Canada, whence he concentrated on recording butterfly life histories and photography. He has a backlog of (mostly butterfly) material to be published, including moth life histories. He now has returned to Hong Kong and is tackling the daunting task of documenting the moth life histories of the species here. His moth and butterfly collection is in part housed at Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden, with the more recent material housed at the HKLS headquarters in Tuen Mun. (BENHS member and a life member of Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society)
©
R. C. Kendrick, 2009-2023
last updated 10th July 2023