Researcher devotes six decades to documenting over 500 butterfly species in Hainan

A view of a butterfly exhibition hall at the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in south China's Hainan Province. (Photo/Hainan Daily)

At the foot of Jianfengling, part of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in south China's Hainan Province, a butterfly exhibition hall displays thousands of specimens, including Teinopalpus aureus, the country's only butterfly species under first-class state protection.

According to the exhibition hall, more than 2,000 butterfly species have been recorded in China, including more than 700 on Hainan Island and over 500 in Jianfengling. The figures continue to be updated.

Gu Maobin, a researcher at the Research Institute of Tropical Forestry under the Chinese Academy of Forestry, began working in Jianfengling in 1965 and has studied butterflies for more than 60 years.

In recent years, he arranged to have the specimens he had collected over decades transported from Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province back to Jianfengling, where they are now housed in the butterfly exhibition hall that opened in 2024 at the institute's Hainan experimental station.

Butterfly specimens are displayed at an exhibition hall at the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in south China's Hainan Province. (Photo/Hainan Daily)

After graduating in plant protection, Gu took up a post in Jianfengling in 1965. With few references available on local butterflies, he ventured into the rainforest with a net and a specimen box to collect them, then identified and cataloged each specimen at night. He continued this work for decades.

Surveying butterflies in the rainforest was challenging. Species that flew in the canopy were difficult to observe, while steep slopes and dense vegetation often made ground surveys difficult.

Gu recorded Teinopalpus aureus in Jianfengling in April 1982. The species was recorded again in Nanling, Guangdong, in 1991, and Gu encountered it once more on Hainan's Wuzhi Mountain in the early 21st century, helping trace the species' distribution.

In 1997, Gu and his wife, Chen Peizhen, published a book on Hainan's butterflies, documenting about 600 species, including newly identified species and subspecies. Gu said the exact number of butterfly species on the island remains unknown, as some areas and butterfly groups have yet to be surveyed.

Gu also wanted to bring butterflies closer to the public. In 1997, he served as a technical consultant for a butterfly valley in Sanya, a project that, according to Gu, later won first prize in the Hainan Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award.

In 2023, Gu proposed setting up the butterfly exhibition hall at the Hainan experimental station. He shipped his specimens from Guangzhou and paid much of the travel and shipping costs himself. The hall, which covers about 500 square meters, houses about 10,000 specimens representing more than 1,000 species, with over 300 species on permanent display. Gu donated most of the specimens free of charge.

Photo shows a butterfly specimen at an exhibition hall at the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in south China's Hainan Province. (Photo/Hainan Daily)

Zhang Tao, head of the Hainan experimental station's science and technology office, said he had once questioned whether the effort was worthwhile. But after seeing just how impressed the visiting students were, he changed his mind.

Gu said specimens serve to preserve records and support science education, but should ultimately encourage people to observe butterflies in the wild.

Protecting butterflies also means protecting the plants and habitats they depend on. Commercial logging in Jianfengling ended in 1993, and forest coverage in the area has now reached 98 percent.

Jianfengling is home to 2,286 wild vascular plant species, 2,222 identified insect species and 400 vertebrate species. Rangers record data during patrols, while researchers conduct long-term monitoring of hydrology, soil and weather.