Summer of 2009: Mengding 3

Dai people live in warm and wet areas. The climate contributes a lot not only to their wealthy lives, but also to the good environment around their villages. Dai people love nature very much. In old times they live in bamboo houses. Although now they build with bricks and cement, every family still own a yard with their houses. In the yard the plant all kinds of fruits, beans, melons, flowers and trees. Amount the plants fly all kind of butterflies and bees. How I wish I had such a garden!

Now let's see what Dai people have in their garden?

Summer of 2009: Mengding 2

Dongjing Mian Temple is the biggest temple in Mengding. Unlike Guangyun Mian Temple, Dongjing is totally a Dai-styled temple without any Han characteristic. So you won't find gold dragons or stone lions.

On the top of the mountain locates a beautiful white tower.

Summer of 2009: Mengding 1

Mengding（Here）is an small but important village between China and Myanmar. It is 130km away from Cangyuan. My uncle has worked there for ten years when he was young. So we decided to go there to visit some of his old friends.

Sculpture of three Wa people.

The road was constructed alone the Nangun River, and lot of waterfalls was falling from the mountains in rainy season.

It's out!

The cocoon I posted in the last post has died in an accident. However, there was another one hidden in the branches and leaves in the box I used to feed the caterpillars. This one was not emerged until Dec 11 morning. Cool!

Papilio machaon

Caterpillars of Swallowtail

Just now I visited Wind Walker’s blog and found that she has posted something about two lovely caterpillars of swallowtails that she is feeding. This remind of me of my caterpillars. I have found a lot of caterpillars of Papilio machaon, a similar species with Wind Walker’s, on carrot leaves. I tried to feed them but most of them died or escaped from the box. Only one transformed into a cocoon. Here are some photos.

When I first found this charming creature it was crawling on the ground so I didn’t know what its host plant is. I took a cabbage leaf nearby for granted. But the worm refused to eat.

Summer of 2009: Wa People’s Village

Wengding is one of the reserved typical Wa-styled village. These thatched cottages are homes to Wa people living in mountains.

People work and keep livestocks on the ground while sleep on the second floor in case of beasts.

Summer of 2009: The Tiankeng And Rock Painting

One thing that makes the Wa Nationality culture famous is the rock painting discoverd in 1965. More than 3,000 years’ history makes it one of the most historical rock paintings of China.

A Wa-styled village. The art works are hidden in the cliff mountains behind it.

Summer of 2009: the Guangyun Mian Temple

Guangyun Mian Temple, locates north of Cangyuan, is more than 170 years old. It is one of the most influential Theravada Buddhist places in southeast of China. The temple is a mixture of Dai style temple with Han architectural building. You can see beautiful wood engraved works in the window pane, and the murals inside are famous. We visited there the second day morning. That few people was there because of the remoteness contributes to the peacefulness…

The east side of the temple. The yard is too small to step back for a integral shot of the building.

Summer of 2009: Twilight of Cangyuan

We arrived Cangyuan, a county located in southeast of Yunnan Province between China and Burma (location), late. It is famous for its Wa Nationality culture.

We intended to stay overnight in the resort (the village in the middle of picture), where my father had lived in last time he came here, but it is no longer operating.

If you turn around there was a peaceful reservoir because I took these two photos on a dam.

A Gift For My Girlfriend

This is the gift for my girlfriend’s 20th birthday. I collected these butterflies carefully during my summer holiday in remote Yunnan. Then we ordered a frame and collected some plant material. Last night when the first snow of 2009 was falling outside, we finished the mounting in a classroom. Here it is!

The species are: Euploea mulciber (the smaller blue and black one); Byasa polyeuctes (the black swallowtail); Thauria lathyi (the black and yellow one); Idea leuconoe (the white spotted one)

Summer of 2009: Rainforest 5

Today let me show you some non-insect creatures that I have recorded in the rain forest. These will be the last post of rain forest series.

after a heavy but short rain, a cute small lizard came out.

It was abnormal that Amphibian was very rare in tropical jungle in rainy season. This was the only toad we found in the night.

an ugly snail

huge spiders the size of a palm are everywhere in the jungle.

We intended collecting beetles and other odd things under bright lights but received disappointment. What was also disappointed like us was the spider waiting there.

Achatina fulica, the giant snail originally from East Africa, is widely distributed all around world’s tropical area and has become one of the most harmful invading species.

Summer of 2009: Rainforest 4

Today I gonna show you the other insects I shot in the forest.

A colorful leaf beetle. 1cm

This is the largest “tortoise beetle” (Chinese name of insects of Cassididae) I’ve ever seen. I love its crystal elytron with metallic gold  pattern shining in the sunshine.

A gray young mantis on a gray rock. I would have missed it if my friend did’t pointed it to me.

A big flying cockroach finally stopped on defoliation.

This is the only walking stick insect species we found there, yet the quality is quite large in August.

A beautiful moth’s dream was interrupted by us.

To be continued

Summer of 2009: Rainforest 3

More insects of Orthoptera and Homoptera. These vegetarians are easily found in bushes and big trees.

A common and odd-looking grasshopper in tropical forest, Erianthus dohrni Bolivar

This one missed a leg, nevertheless, it is good at flying. It’s the same species with the above one but in different color.

common locust in the forest

another species in the bush

How marvelous the froghopper is! The nymph make a lot of foam, like saliva spitted by someone at plant, and hide itself in it for protection.

Saiva gemmata (Westwood,1848). I’ve never seen this kind of insect before, which is often called “chicken” in China. I don’t know why.

a big one of Ricaniidae

To be continued

Summer of 2009: Rainforest 2

A lot of insects live in tropical rainforest. But we didn’t find too much as we expected. Maybe it was not the right season. However, it was the right season for all kinds of butterflies, which attracted us most, in the begin of August.

Butterflies gather together, drink a lot of water and drain it to cool their bodies in hot days.

Thauria Lathyi

Stibochiona nicea

Loxura atymnus

Cyrestis sp.

This funny skipper butterfly kept sucking the liquid drained from itself. Then it drained and sucked again and again. I infer it’s a simple way to quickly make the skipper cool without much effort to find enough water source in hot day.

To be continued

Summer of 2009: Rainforest 1

This summer I went my home: Yunnan Province, China. Yunnan is famous for its diversity of terrain, climate, ecosystem and life. During the holiday I visited some places in south and southwest of the province, where more creatures could be found. The very fisrt place I want to show you is the rainforest of the Green Water River near Manhao (Find out the location here). We have stayed there for only one day because there are no place to live. A few days later I retured with my parents again. My time is so limited today and more pictures will be posted in the following days.

The overview of the rainforest

odd tropical floras

fungi at the bottom of the forest

the fruits of some kind of fan palm

To be continued