INSECTS IN CHINA
Buildings in Chinese cities are being threatened by termites that eat reinforced concrete. According to experts from the Termite Prevention and Control Research Institute in southwestern Sichuan province the insects also damage wires and cables made from copper, iron and aluminum.
The Kangba Plateau in Gansu is famous for its basketball-size balls of worms. The worms cling together on the grassland so they can be pushed by the wind to a nearby river. They also form balls when they have eaten all the grass in one area and have to move on.
Shaoyang China hosts (or hosted) a bee-wearing contest. In 2011 the event attracted two contestants — a pair of Chinese apiarists — who competed to see who could attract the most bees to their bodies after one hour. The BBC reported. “Contenstants wore nothing but shorts, goggles, and nose plugs, and stood on a scales so that the weight of the bees could be calculated. Each contestant attracted the bees by locking a queen bee in a small cage and tying it to his body. The victor? 42-year old Wang Dalin, who added about 52 pounds of bees to his frame. [Source: Laura Hibbard, Huffington Post, July 18, 2011]
Interesting Butterflies in China
Golden Emperor butterflies (Teinopalpus aureus) are found in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang and Yunnan. The shapes of females and males are different. The body and wings of male butterflies are brown with golden green spots. There is a golden green band in the middle of the forewings and a golden mark on the hind wings. This is where they get their name. They have a prominent tail on their hind wings. Female butterflies do not have the golden green color. There is a pentagonal white spot on their hind wings with thin and long tails. This kind of butterfly is an endemic species of China. Their numbers are rare and less; and they are the only Class I state protection butterfly in China. They are considered as an endangered species.[Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]
Chinese Gifu butterflies (Luehdorfia Chinensis) are mainly found in the middle and downstream areas of the Yangtze River. L. ch. lee Chou and L. taibai Chou are also found in Qingling Mountain of Shanxi and Taibai Mountain. They are all rare species. Luehdorfia chinensis are on the badge of the Butterfly Branch of China Entomological Society and are a Class II State Protected Animal. They are considered an endangered species. The basic color of the wings of Luehdorfia chinensis is yellow. There is a black band along the outer edge of their forewings and many black stripes on the wing surfaces, which looks like the skin of a tiger; hence the butterfly's name. The outer edges of their hind wings are undulated. They have a short tail, the outer edge of which is dotted with falcate yellow spots. In the center of the black band are blue spots. The innermost falcate are dotted with red spots.
Three-tailed Bhutan Glory (Bhutanitis Thaidina) have many Chinese names. They belong to the Parnassiidae genus. Their body and wings are black. There are eight transverse yellow stripes on their forewings; the 3rd and 5th are shorter and the 6th and 7th are joined; their hind wings are narrow and longer and the outer edge of them is wavy. There are three tails on the hind wings, with five orange stripes on the outermost edge. Their external appearance is very similar to that of swallowtails. Bhutanitis thaidina are high mountain species and live in mountainous areas above 2000 meters. They are found in Yunnan, Sichuan, Shanxi and Tibet. They are a rare species and a class II key national endangered species. Some scholars believe that this species of butterfly should be classified as Bhutanitis Arkinson. They are considered an endangered species.
Apollos (Parnassius Apollo) are popular with people because of their elegance. The wings of this type of butterfly are white or pale yellow, which are semi-transparent. There are some black spots on the front wings and two large and bright red spots on the back wings. The center of the red spots are white with black edges. The black edges add to the elegance of Parnassiu apollo. The Parnassius genus all live in high mountain areas and have good cold hardiness. Some of them can fly above the snow line. When they fly, they fly slowly along the ground as if they're appreciating the snow, so it's easy to catch them. Parnassius apollo is one of the most treasured species among the more than 30 species of Parnassius butterflies in China. The wingspan of this species is five to eight centimeters. Parnassius apollo is found only in Xinjiang and is listed as a Class II key national endangered species in China. They are considered an endangered species.
Two-tailed Bhutan Glory (Bhutanitis Mansfieldi) have black wings, on which, there are whitish yellow stripes. The width of the yellow stripes are almost the same with the black base stripes. There are two tails in the outer edge of the hind wings. The outer tail are longer and bigger in their end, like a thumb. Thus, they looks as if They have three tails. They have eyelashes above their compound eyes, which are seldom seen in butterflies. Their larva feed on Aristolochia moupinensis. The wingspan of Bhutanitis mansfieldi is six to seven centimeters. They only distributes in Yunnan and are listed as class two state protection animal.
Common Clipper (Cyrestis Thyodama) have wings that are half transparent whitish, with brown netting twine stripes. In the hind corner of the fore wings of male butterfly there are some earth color spots or stripes. Cyrestis thyodamas are simple and elegant. When they stays quite, their wings cover their back plainly. If they stay on a pile of rocks, the color of their wings have strong protective effects. The protective effect are more like this if they stay in limestones. There are three species of Cyrestis in China. This kind of butterfly distributes the most widely including Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Taiwan. Their wingspan are 5.5 to six centimeters.
Large Butterflies in China
Golden Birdwing (Troides Aeacus) have a black body. There are red hairs on the either side of their head, neck and thorax. The sides and their belly are all golden. Their fore wings are black and the color of their wing sides are light. Their hind wings are golden. The veins of their wings and the spots on them are black. They thus get their name. Their black fore wings and golden hind wings are decorated with black dots and stripes, which make the butterfly more elegant and precious. The wingspan of they are 14.5 to 17 centimeters. They are found in Shanxi, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan and Tibet in China. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]
Paris Peacock (Achillides Paris) have a black body and wings, which glimmers golden green lustre. There are a row of golden green spots in the outer edge of their fore wings and a big color spot in the middle of their hind wings, which appear to be golden green or golden blue based on different light angels. A golden green stripe on the spot penetrates to a ring spot on the further end of their wings. There are a whitish wide ribbon in the outer edge of the fore wings and a pinkish ring spot in the outer edge of their hind wings. There are an outstanding tail in their hind wings. Because They have a golden green spot on their hind wings, the butterfly acquires their name. Achillides paris are often seen in low latitude forests. They have the habit of gathering in wet sands and to fly back to their original place after flying away in surprise. They can fly very quickly. They are found in a widespread range in China including Middle, South and Southwest China. Their wingspan are 10 to 13 centimeters.
Junglequeen Stichophthalma Louisa have a large body and a brown color. The upper side of their fore wings have large piece of light color area, almost white. Around their fore wing margins, there are a ring of arrow-like black spots and also look like spears or small fish; the butterfly get their name here. There are a reddish ring spot in the middle of the wings; in the middle of which, the color are light yellow. The perimeter of the spot are brown, which forms a man-shaped shadow. The spots on female butterfly are larger than that of male butterfly, and the color are also deeper. They often flies in shadows of trees, bamboo woods. People can see them most frequently in bamboo woods in the early morning or at dusk. Tens of them may sometimes gather over a pile of human or animal wastes or decayed fruit. Their and can even eat up all bamboo leaves in a valley. Their larvae hang themselves in the back of bamboo leaves. There are more than 20 species belonging to seven genera infamily Amathusiidae in China. This kind of butterfly distributes in Yunnan. Their wingspan are 10 to 11.1 centimeters.
World's Largest Insects, from China
A Chinese scientist claimed to have found the world's largest butterfly or moth, a giant atlas moth with a total wingspan of 26 centimeters on Mt. Hanshan in Zhuang Autonomous region in Guangxi Province in southern China.
In 2014, the world's longest insect — a 62.5 centimeter (24.6 inch) stick insect — was found in a tropical forest in the southern province of Guangxi. The insect, a new type of stick insect, named "Phryganistria chinensis Zhao" after the researcher Zhao Li who discovered it after spending years looking for the bug after hearing accounts of a giant insect from locals. "I was collecting insects on a 1,200-meter-tall (3,937-foot) mountain in Guangxi's Liuzhou City on the night of Aug. 16, 2014, when a dark shadow appeared in the distance, which looked like a tree twig," Li told Xinhua. "As I went near, I was shocked to find the huge insect's legs were as long as its body." The previous longest insect was also a stick insect that measured in at 56.5 centimeters (22.3 inches) and was from Malaysia. [Source: Kelly Dickerson, Mic, May 9, 2016]
See Stick Insects Under INTERESTING INSECTS IN ASIA: FIREFLIES, JUMPING ANTS, GIANT MOTHS, WALKING STICKS factsanddetails.com
41 People Killed in Hornets in Three Months in Shaanxi
In 2013, 41 people were killed in three months by swarms of highly venomous hornets in Ankang municipality in Shaanxi province. Jonathan Kaiman wrote in The Guardian: Chen pointed at the small plot of cabbage, spring onions and corn where his friend, Yu Yihong, had been stung to death by giant hornets. "When he got to the hospital, there were still two hornets in his trousers," said Chen, a farmer. "The hornets' poison was too strong — his liver and kidneys failed, and he couldn't urinate." Yu, a square-jawed 40-year-old farmer in perfect health, had been harvesting his crops when he stepped on a nest of Vespa mandarinia hornets concealed beneath a pile of dry corn husks. The hornets swarmed around Yu, stinging him through his long-sleeved shirt and trousers. He ran, but the hornets chased him, stinging his arms and legs, his head and neck. [Source: Jonathan Kaiman, The Guardian, October 4, 2013]
“Yu's story is a tragic but increasingly common one in Shaanxi province, where, over three months alone, hornets killed 41 people and injured a further 1,675. Ankang, a municipality in the province's south, appears to be the center of the attacks. While hornets infest its mountainous rural areas every year — 36 residents were stung to death between 2002 and 2005 — local people and municipal officials say this year it is tantamount to an epidemic, the worst they have ever seen. At least some of the deaths were caused by V mandarinia, experts say. The species does not typically attack unless it feels its nest is threatened. But when it does, it can be fierce and fast — the hornets can fly at 25mph and cover 50 miles in a day. They make their homes in tree stumps or underground, making nests extremely difficult to detect. “Two other cities in Shaanxi — Hanzhong and Shangluo — have also been besieged by hornets, though the death tolls have been markedly lower. In southern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a swarm of hornets attacked a primary school in mid-September, injuring 23 children and seven adults. The teacher, Li Zhiqiang, told pupils to hide under their desks and tried to fight the creatures off until he lost consciousness, state media reported.
“Ankang is on alert, with the local authorities posting warning notices online, on roadside treetrunks and on primary school walls. Gong Zhenghong Gong has spent nearly every night wandering the township exterminating nests. He says there are 248 hornet nests in Hongshan, with 175 close to schools and roads. Gong and his team survey nests by day; once the sun sets, they dress in homemade anti-hornet suits made from rain jackets and canvas, and burn the nests with spray-can flamethrowers. "They don't fly around at night," he said. Sometimes the team begins work in the late evening and doesn't finish until 2am. "We'd normally send the fire squad to do this, but this year there were too many nests."
“The hornets seem ubiquitous in Ankang. In Liushui township, a scattering of two-storey concrete homes sandwiched between a lush hillside and a stagnant river, an elderly shopkeeper in a purple blazer said the hornets had infested a cabbage patch near her home. "The government has been coming down and burning them, but they can't burn them all," she added, pointing down into the brush. "I'm not willing to go down there." “Mu Conghui, a 55-year-old Ankang villager, was stung 200 times while tending her rice field in late August. "These hornets are terrifying — all at once they flew to my head, and when I stopped, they stung me so much that I couldn't budge," she told state media. "My legs were crawling with hornets. Right now my legs are covered with small sting holes — over the past two months I've received 13 dialysis treatments."
“The Ankang government says it has removed 710 hives and sent 7 million yuan (£707,000) to help affected areas. "We're doing everything we can, but there's only so much we can do," says Deng Xianghong, the deputy head of the Ankang propaganda department. "God has been unfair to us." People blame this year's scourge on climate change: the past year has been unusually warm, allowing a high number of hornets to survive the winter. Huang Ronghui, an official at the Ankang Forestry Bureau's pest control department, lists a host of other possibilities: the hornets may have been agitated by a dry spell, while labourers have been moving deeper into the mountains, disturbing their nests. "Other than this, hornets are attracted to bright colours and the smell of people's sweat, alcohol and sweet things," he told state media. "They're sensitive to movement, such as running people or animals."
“The region has also been overrun by the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, a slightly smaller species which can be equally dangerous. Hundreds, even thousands, inhabit each nest, which typically hangs from a high place. In Chengxing village, a few miles down a winding mountain road from Yu's home village, 16-year-old Tan Xingjian pointed at a tree in the distance. Hanging from one thick branch was a pale, basketball-sized bulb, its surface alive with darting black specks. "That's where they live," Tan said. "We don't dare to go near there."
Attacks by wasps killed at least 10 farmers and frightened many others in Shaanxi Province in the autumn of 2005. Some died from stings because they could not afford medical treatment. Some farmers were so afraid of attacks they left their crops unharvested. It was unclear what was behind the attacks. Some blamed reforestation projects that created more trees for wasps to build their nests in. In November 2000, The Telegraph reported: “Chinese troops are fighting killer hornets with flame-throwers in Jiepai, Sichuan province, after an eight-year-old boy was stung to death. An estimated one billion hornets are in the town. [Source: David Rennie, The Telegraph, November 4, 2000]
Giant Venomous Scorpions Lived in China 125 Million Years Ago
Jeholia longchengi, a species of scorpion that was about 10 centimeters (4 inches) long. lived in China 125 million years ago. Skyler Ware wrote in Live Science: The venomous scorpion was larger than many ancient — and modern — scorpion species. Researchers believe it would’ve been a key species in the food chain, gobbling up spiders, lizards and even small mammals that lived in its ancient ecosystem. It is just the fourth terrestrial scorpion fossil to be found in China and the first Mesozoic-era scorpion fossil found in the country, researchers reported January 24, 2025 in the journal Science Bulletin. [Source: Skyler Ware, Live Science, March 5, 2025]
“Most scorpions from the Mesozoic era (252 million to 66 million years ago) are preserved in amber. Fossilized scorpions are much rarer because these arachnids live under rocks and branches, where they're less likely to be trapped in sediment and fossilize, said study co-author Diying Huang, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China. The scientists found the fossil in the Yixian Formation, a hotbed of Early Cretaceous fossils in northeastern China. The team named the new species Jeholia longchengi. "Jeholia" refers to the Jehol Biota, the ecosystem of northeast China in the Early Cretaceous about 133 million to 120 million years ago, and "longchengi" refers to the Longcheng district of Chaoyang, China, where the fossil currently resides. J. longchengi was roughly 4 inches (10 centimeters) long, making it something of a giant of its time. "Other Mesozoic scorpions are much smaller, most of them less than half [the size] of the new species," Huang told Live Science.
J. longchengi has a pentagonal body and rounded spiracles, which are the openings in its body that allowed it to breathe. These characteristics are similar to those found in some families of modern-day scorpions that inhabit other parts of Asia. But unlike those families, J. longchengi has fairly long legs and slim pedipalps, or pincers, that lack spurs along a segment called the patella. Fossils of many other animals — including dinosaurs, birds, mammals and insects — have been found in the Jehol Biota, suggesting a complex food web. Larger mammals and dinosaurs may have preyed upon J. longchengi, while the scorpion's diet may have included insects, spiders, frogs and even small lizards or mammals, the researchers wrote in the study.
The scorpion's mouthparts aren't preserved in the fossil, though, so it's hard to know for sure what they ate. Discoveries of additional fossil specimens could clear up the species' role in the ecosystem and its place in the food web, the researchers wrote. "If placed in today's environment, it might become a natural predator of many small animals, and could even hunt the young of small vertebrates," Huang told China’s state run Xinhua news agency.
Scientists Recreate the Mating Call of a Jurassic-Era Chinese Katydid
Brian Switek wrote in Smithsonian Magazine: “Working in northeastern China in a fossil-rich region called the Jiulongshan Formation, Beijing-based paleontologists discovered an exquisite set of insect wings preserved in stone. Microscopic analysis showed they were from a previously unknown species of archaic katydid, a cricket-like creature. Most exciting, the wings had survived the grind of time, so the special structures the presumably male katydid used to sing could still be seen. The researchers named it Archaboilus musicus in tribute to its acoustic talents. [Source: Brian Switek, Smithsonian Magazine, January, 2013]
“Much like modern katydids, this Jurassic species had two pairs of wings, and even though the fossil insect’s legs were not found, comparisons with closely related katydids hint that it crawled on the ground rather than fly. The male called out to potential mates by rubbing a toothed vein on the edge of one forewing against a sharp-edged scraper under the opposite forewing.
“Once the paleontologists and entomologists squared away the anatomy, they turned to Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, an expert on biological sounds at the University of Lincoln in England, who worked to reconstruct the katydid’s song. Studying the shape and size of the wings — including the spacing of the rasplike teeth along the wing edge — and comparing those structures with those of modern katydids, Montealegre-Zapata programmed a computer to produce the most likely sound that the four-inch-long insect could have made. The result, a landmark in paleoacoustics, is the most ancient call ever recreated.
“It sounds like a soft metallic ping: not quite like the chirp of a modern katydid, but not an alien sound, either. “It was very emotional hearing the reconstructed sound,” says Montealegre-Zapata. Curiously, A. musicus sang at a relatively low frequency — about six kHz — compared with the 10 kHz or greater of most living katydids. That’s a clue to the Jurassic environment of ferns and conifers in which it lived. Among other things, low-frequency sounds carry farther, penetrate underbrush better and are more readily detected amid a din than are high-frequency sounds. “I think if we were able to travel back in time to the Jurassic, we would hear a very noisy environment at night with insect calls perhaps similar to what we hear today but noisier to our ears, as many will be at low frequencies,” Montealegre-Zapata says.
“Of course, dangerous eavesdroppers inhabited the same forest. Citing other fossils found in the Jiu — longshan Formation, the researchers point out that reptiles, amphibians, mammals and possibly feathered dinosaurs were known to exist there. Perhaps, then, A. musicus, like today’s katy — dids, remained mostly quiet during the day, calling for mates at night to minimize detection. “In the darkness of the Jurassic forest,”?the researchers conclude in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “A. musicus surely experienced the dilemma of singing loud and clear, while simultaneously attempting to avoid nocturnal predators.”
Invasive Insects from China
Invaders from China causing trouble include the Chinese longhorn beetles that probably hitched a ride in the timber of shipping pallets or containers is threatening North American forests. The insects first appeared in Brooklyn and from there spread to Central Park in Manhattan then Chicago and then around the United States.
Darryl Fears wrote in the Washington Post, “Brown marmorated stink bugs native to China were first discovered in Allentown, Pa., in 1998, likely after crawling out of a cargo ship. So far, the pest has been detected or established in 36 states. Detected means that they’ve been observed and confirmed through lab testing, as opposed to established, which means that they have slipped into homes by the hundreds and ravaged food crops by the thousands. [Source: Darryl Fears, Washington Post , March 16 2012]
In the Mid-Atlantic region, where brown marmorated stink bugs are well established, they caused an estimated $37 million in damage in apple crops alone in 2010, the most recent year for which data are available. Some farmers in Maryland said they ruined a third of their peach crop and half of their raspberries last year. That’s nothing compared with what the warmth-loving bug might do in Florida, said Douglas G. Luster, research leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. “It could be like the atomic bomb going off,” he said, implying that the population might explode.
In 2011 and 2012 bugs were detected in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where farmers grow juicy vegetable and citrus crops the bugs are known to destroy. “There is great fear that if the brown marmorated stink bug gets established in Florida, it will do a lot of damage,” Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said. Florida is testing a non-stinging parasitic wasp from Asia, a natural stink bug predator that entomologists might unleash in October, if necessary, Feiber said. The USDA Agricultural Research Center has tested for more than a year a similar wasp that preys on stink bug eggs but has delayed its release for fear that it, too, could become an invasive pest.
Brown marmorated stink bugs, which, like kudzu bugs, give off a foul bittersweet odor like rotten cilantro when threatened. Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said entomologists can’t stop stink bugs, but they can slow them down. The USDA research program and its academic partners received a $5.7 million grant, allowing them to watch the bugs’ every move. So far they’ve learned that males emit a scent that attracts both sexes, a possible signal that they’ve found food or they want to mate. Entomologist want to use that to trap them, or “attract and kill,” as she put it. Entomologists have found stink bugs in woods, in dead trees, under vegetation, “dispersed across the landscape,” Leskey said. “We have to think about a landscape-level solution.”
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Last updated March 2025