“Wow, there are butterflies everywhere!” Meijun Elementary School in Chiayi County’s Meishan Township is located on a migration route of euploea butterflies, and Ho Ying-chieh, the school’s director of education and student affairs, has planted a variety of herbs and nectar-bearing plants for them. Between June and November each year, euploea butterflies are attracted into the schoolyard to forage and breed, and they have become a unique ecological feature of the school grounds. On July 16, teachers and students from Luman Elementary School made a special trip to get a glimpse of the ecology and an up-close look at the euploea releasing their hair-pencils to repel their rivals and using mimickry and playing dead as means of survival, which had the kids stirred up in amazement.
Ho said that the migration of Taiwanese euploea butterflies and that of Mexican monarch butterflies are tied in first place for the world’s most impressive displays of butterfly ecology. Every spring, the millions of euploea that spend the winter in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung region return north to their birthplace to **give birth** to their offspring. Meijun Elementary is located right on their low-altitude northbound migration route, where from March and April onward a kaleidoscope of euploea butterflies passes by.
Ho says that euploea butterflies can be seen in the schoolyard between June and November every year, and last year the highest daily record number of butterflies counted reached over 100. This year, as nectar-bearing plants have been planted in the schoolyard, up to 300 butterflies have been recorded. Ho plans to plant Tashiro’s eupatoria, tournefortia and other nectar-bearing plants that **bloom** between January and April in the hope of **attracting** euploea butterflies as they migrate in March and April next year.
Photo: Yu Hsueh-lan, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者余雪蘭
(Liberty times, translated by Zane Kheir)
「哇,蝴蝶滿天飛耶!」嘉縣梅山鄉梅圳國小位於台灣紫斑蝶遷徙的蝶道上,教導主任何應傑在校園廣植各種食草與蜜源植物。每年六到十一月間,紫斑蝶紛紛被吸引進校園覓食、繁殖,成為該校特有生態。七月十六日鹿滿國小師生專程來體驗,近距離觀察紫斑蝶釋放毛筆器退敵及擬態裝死求生反應,小朋友驚呼連連。
何應傑說,台灣紫斑蝶大遷徙與美洲墨西哥帝王斑蝶遷徙,並列世界最壯觀的蝴蝶生態;每年春天,在高屏地區過冬數以萬計的紫斑蝶,返回北部出生地繁衍下一代,梅圳國小位於紫斑蝶大軍北返的低海拔移動路線上,從三、四月開始就有大批的蝶兒越過。
何應傑說,每年六到十一月間在校園觀察到的紫斑蝶,去年記錄最多一天有一百多隻,今年因增加蜜源植物,記錄多達三百隻。他計畫在校園栽種一到四月間開花的田代氏澤蘭、冷飯藤等蜜源植物,希望明年可以把三、四月間過境的紫斑蝶也吸引過來。
(自由時報記者余雪蘭)
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
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