Recent surveys indicate that there have been further increases in the numbers of some local species: 107 dragonflies; 232 butterflies (one sixth of the total butterfly species in China); 452 birds (one third of the total bird species in China). There have been new recordings of endemic species, and in a few cases even discoveries new to science.

It is hard to believe that, close to this city, new species are still being found in our seriously understudied countryside. Most of these simply had not been recorded in Hong Kong before. Still more remarkably, some recently discovered species are "new to science". One example is the dragonfly named Melligomphus moluami, sleek and black-bodied, unknown to the world until July 1993 - when it was first described to science from its Mount Butler "type locality". On August 2002, a live Acraea issoria was discovered in an abandoned paddy field near Plover Cove Country Park by AFCD Park Warden.

The reason for these discoveries lies partly in the resurgence of native ecology, described above - and also Hong Kong's wide range of terrain and habitats. An additional factor is the more exploratory work of ecologists today.

Acraea issoria

Meimuna silhetana