Thu, Nov 06, 2003 page4

• Butterfly research flutters on the Web

  MYSTERY VALLEY The migration patterns of the Taiwanese milkweed butterfly are the focus of a Web site which hopes to educate and attract volunteers

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Lepidoptera devotees seeking information on the migration of Taiwanese milkweed butterflies (紫斑蝶) will be excited by the launch of an interactive Web site, at which researchers, students and butterfly-lovers can participate in a marking program. \nAn unusual valley in Kaohsiung County's mountainous Maolin Township (茂林) is a haven for butterflies during the winter, but this place was only discovered in 1971. After that time, however, Taiwanese paid more attention to discovering new species rather than solving the mystery of why masses of milkweed butterflies would gather there after returning from around the island. \nResearch on the question was not properly funded until 1999, when the Council of Agriculture (COA) began to sponsor organizations interested in revealing the secret life of the milkweed butterfly. \nAccording to Jean Jia-lung (詹家龍), a researcher for the Nature and Ecology Education Foundation, several research teams have marked more than 30,000 butterflies over the last three years to learn about the butterfly's migration patterns. Insufficient manpower and resources, Jean said, have left many questions unanswered. \nScientists still lack basic information, including the total population, the distribution of breeding sites, migration routes, how different generations use the different routes, and other factors affecting migration. \n"We require a large amount of data to answer these questions and that's why we need a large-scale marking program," Jean said. \nThe program has gained from the use of powerful computers provided by the National Center for High-performance Computing. The center yesterday launched the Web site Purple Butterfly Valley (e-butterfly.nchc.org.tw), which serves as the research program's database. \nVolunteers for the program use white oil pens to write codes on the butterflies' wings. Researchers estimate that one million milkweed butterflies of various species winter in Maolin every year. \nTaiwanese milkweed butterflies have faced challenges from human activity over the last two decades. Maolin Township is home to 2,000 people, most of whom are the indigenous Rukai Aborigines. Since being designated a national scenic area in 1991, the area has been visited by more than one million tourists every year. Newly built parking lots and recreation areas in Maolin have adversely affected at least three of the eight wintering sites for butterflies, researchers said. The health of the butterfly population is also a reliable indicator of the health of Taiwan's environment, they said. \nWhen Professor Frederick Urquhart passed away last year at the age of 90, a legacy of tagging programs for the North American monarch butterfly remained. The 1960s tagging program, involving both volunteers and scientists, resulted in the tracking of the monarch butterfly's curious migration. Today, it is believed that no butterflies migrate like the monarch butterfly of North America. They can travel up to 4,000km, a distance greater than any other tropical butterfly. \nA new book by Dick Vane-Wright, head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London discusses the secrets of the purple butterfly valleys of Taiwan, along with the epic voyages undertaken by the monarch butterfly.

  Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    US not bound by Beijing’s ‘one China’ principle: State Department spokesman

  • 2

    US forces would defend Taiwan: Biden

  • 3

    Police arrest man wanted for a 20-year crime spree

  • 4

    Standardized exam asks ninth-graders to define ‘trolling’ in English portion

  • 5

    Quad opposes any ‘change by force’