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New orchid from Jianfengling
KFBG studentship-holder Tian Huazhen discovered a new Anoectochilus orchid during her fieldwork in Jianfengling, Hainan in 2006. The species, A. hainanensis, was described in a 2008 paper.1
Source:
1 Tian HZ, Li L, Hu AQ and Xing FW, 2008. Anoectochilus hainanensis
(Orchidaceae), a new species from Hainan, China. Annales Botanici
Fennici 45: 220-222.
Hainan's fauna and flora in pictures
Reserve wardens in Hainan's nature reserves have begun using pictorial leaflets illustrating Hainan's protected and rare species of mammal, plant and snake. These leaflets, produced jointly by KFBG's China Programme and Yinggeling Nature Reserve, have been appreciated by field staff for their user-friendly identification information on the 130 species featured, and coverage of other taxonomic groups has been requested. It is hoped the identification tool will help staff to make more informative records of sightings and activities.
Gibbon groups shift their ranges
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Wardens at Bawangling NNR have found it difficult in recent months to follow the Hainan Gibbons, as the two social groups have apparently shifted their home ranges. A concerted joint effort by reserve staff and members of KFBG's China Programme in November 2008 found they were spending more time in the steep Baisha (eastern) part of the forest, where terrain is very difficult for monitoring teams. The monitoring team has rarely visited this section of the forest and the finding was a mixed blessing, as this forest is of good quality with high food tree density, but is bordered with villages that still utilise products from the mountains. On 16 February 2009 the population was boosted by another new infant, born to the single breeding female in Group B.
More of Yinggeling's hidden secrets unveiled
A team of over 30 members from Yinggeling Nature Reserve, KFBG's China Programme and South China Agricultural University spent four days trekking through the forest interior of Yinggeling in January, and came back with some encouraging news. A young specimen of the treefrog Rhacophorus yinggelingensis, first described in 2007, was found at exactly the same spot as the holotype, indicating the species continues to breed at the site. A tree, Trigonobalanus verticillata, first discovered in Hainan in 2005 at Yinggeling, was found to be plentiful in the central part of the reserve. Other indications of effective protection, such as abundant Sambar Rusa unicolor signs and lack of recent hunters' camps, were also in evidence.
In 2008 a new species of skipper (butterfly), Hyarotis quinquepunctatus, was described from Yinggeling, collected by Wang Min and Chen Liusheng in 2005 during a KFBG/Hainan Forestry Department survey.
Source: Fan XL and Chiba H, 2008. A new species of the genus Hyarotis Moore (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) from China. Journal of South China Agricultural University 29(2): 27-29.
China Ornithological Society Awards
KFBG has provided funding and support to the China Ornithological Society's 2008 Awards. The China Programme's Dr Michael Laujoined the judging panel, rewarding advances in bird knowledge. After careful examination of more than 10 candidate projects from throughout China, five were selected. ‘A new species of babbler from the Sino-Vietnamese border region of China' by Prof. Zhou Fang from Guangxi University won the special award. Dr Li Bicheng's (Zhejiang University) project ‘First breeding observations and a new locality record of White-eared Night Heron Gorsachius magnificus in Southeast China' was awarded second prize. The projects
‘A new record of birds in China – Zoothera monticola' (by Luo Pingzhao, Sichuan University), ‘Geographic distribution of White-Eared Night Heron' (He Fenqi, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), and ‘Reproductive biology of the sinensis subspecies of Locustella pryeri' (Li Feng, Northeast Forestry University) shared the third prize.
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