New distributional record of Mymar taprobanicum Ward, 1875 (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) from Malaysian Borneo

Knowledge of the microhymenopteran fauna of the Chalcidoid family, Mymaridae of Malaysia is very limited. This report provides a new distributional record of Mymar taprobanicum Ward, 1875, from Sarawak, East Malaysian Borneo. Four male specimens were collected through yellow pan traps in a residential area in Kuching in December 2016. Although widely known as an important parasitoid of rice pests, this species has never been reported from East Malaysian Borneo prior to this report

Plant Association of Lanternflies(Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) from Malaysian Borneo

The family Fulgoridae is known for their distinct morphological structures and striking colouration. Despite so, comprehensive documentation of insect-plant interaction from this charismatic family is greatly scarce. Presented here are records of plant association across four species of Fulgoridae from Malaysian Borneo. The current study was based on voucher specimens and field samplings from selected localities in Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. A total of 11 species of plants belonging to 11 genera and nine families were recorded. Three fulgorid species namely Penthicodes quadrimaculata, Pyrops intricatusand Py. sultanusshares the same host plant being the mata kucing fruit tree(Dimocarpus longan ssp.malesianus). The most speciose insect-plant association belongs to Pe. farinosa and Py. sultanus with six species documented. This is the first record of host plants reported for Py.intricatus, Pe. farinosa and Pe. quadrimaculatain Malaysian Borneo

Checklist of the Family Acrididae MacCleay, 1821 (Orthoptera) Based on Voucher Specimens of Major Repositories in Sarawak

Acrididae is a family of insects consisting of the short-horned grasshoppers and locusts. Currently, knowledge on the faunistic composition of family Acrididae in Sarawak is still scarce. This study aimed to determine the species composition and to provide a current checklist of acridid fauna in Sarawak, using voucher specimens from Insect Reference Collection of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UIRC), and Research, Development and Innovation Division (RDID) of Forest Department Sarawak. A total of 925 specimens of acridid were examined, representing 5 subfamilies, 17 genera and 22 species. Subfamily Catantopinae was recorded with the highest number of species (8 genera; 10 species), followed by Oedipodinae (4 genera; 4 species), Cyrtacanthacridinae (2 genera; 3 species), Oxyinae (2 genera; 3 species), and Acridinae (1 genus; 2 species). The most abundant species was Traulia azureipennis followed by Valanga nigricornis. The least abundant species were Coloracris coerulescens, Coloracris sp., Craneopsis olivacea, Perakia borneensis and Phalaca waterstradti, which is represented by a singleton. This study serves as a fundamental data which will aid future taxonomic and ecological studies on Acrididae in Malaysia, particularly Sarawak

Checklist of the Family Acrididae MacCleay, 1821 (Orthoptera) Based on Voucher Specimens of Major Repositories in Sarawak

Acrididae is a family of insects consisting of the short-horned grasshoppers and locusts. Currently, knowledge on the faunistic composition of family Acrididae in Sarawak is still scarce. This study aimed to determine the species composition and to provide a current checklist of acridid fauna in Sarawak, using voucher specimens from Insect Reference Collection of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UIRC), and Research, Development and Innovation Division (RDID) of Forest Department Sarawak. A total of 925 specimens of acridid were examined, representing 5 subfamilies, 17 genera and 22 species. Subfamily Catantopinae was recorded with the highest number of species (8 genera; 10 species), followed by Oedipodinae (4 genera; 4 species), Cyrtacanthacridinae (2 genera; 3 species), Oxyinae (2 genera; 3 species), and Acridinae (1 genus; 2 species). The most abundant species was Traulia azureipennis followed by Valanga nigricornis. The least abundant species were Coloracris coerulescens, Coloracris sp., Craneopsis olivacea, Perakia borneensis and Phalaca waterstradti, which is represented by a singleton. This study serves as a fundamental data which will aid future taxonomic and ecological studies on Acrididae in Malaysia, particularly Sarawak

First Record of Samsama chersonesia chersonesia Distant, 1906 (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) from Borneo

The only known distribution for the subspecies Samsama chersonesia chersonesia Distant, 1906 was in Perak and Cameron Highlands, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, Indonesia. This paper provides the first distributional record for the subspecies in Sarawak and Sabah, Borneo. A total of 17 individuals were documented based on voucher specimens from three repositories in Sarawak and Sabah, namely Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Insect Reference Collection (UIRC), Research Development and Innovation Division, Forest Department Sarawak (RDID), and Sabah Parks Entomological Museum (SPM). This discovery denotes that this subspecies occurs in Sundaland: Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo

Morphometric Analysis of Sexual Dimorphism in Penthicodes farinosus (Weber, 1801) (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) from Sarawak

The Penthicodes farinosus are strikingly coloured insects and can be found in India, Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, the Philippines, and Borneo. Despite their wide distributional range in Asia with a common occurrence in Borneo, morphometric investigation of P. farinosus is still lacking. The study is aimed to investigate the morphological variations of this species between two different sexes in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Eleven morphometric characters were measured from 183 specimens (69 males and 114 females). The data were analysed using an independent t-test, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). Sexual dimorphism index (SDI) was found ranging from 0.044 (LV) to 0.1008 (BTg) indicating females were larger than males. In PCA, cumulative variations of 59.9% were recorded from two principal components, showing higher loadings in the length of tegmen (LTg) and total length (TL). DFA revealed a single function that explains a canonical correlation of 0.895 with 100% variation. The Wilks’ Lambda values of 0.199 were highly supported with p<0.0001. The highest loadings for the model are LTg and TL. The two variables were further tested using Leave-One-Out Cross Validation (LOOVC) method which resulted in 97.2% cases being correctly classified as male or female. This suggests LTg and TL can be useful in separating both sexes of P. farinosus

Faunistic composition of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Apocrita: Parasitica) of West Sarawak

The order Hymenoptera are composed of many species that are beneficial as pollinators and majority are parasitic in behaviour. The presence of an ovipositor instead of a sting distinguishes parasitoids from other hymenopterans. The faunistic composition and relative abundance of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Apocrita: Parasitica) were studied in three study sites with contrasting types of habitat, namely agricultural area, peat swamp forest and urban area by using ten yellow pan traps. A total of349 individuals, 142 species, eight superfamilies and 20 families were recorded from all three locations. The abundance and diversity between each study sites were found to be different. Scelionidae (superfamily Platygastroidea) were found to have the most abundant species in agricultural and urban area. The most abundant species in peat swamp forest was Diapriidae (superfamily Proctotrupoidea). Based on the Morisita-Hom Index, the peat swamp forest has the highest species similarity, while Shannon's Diversity Index revealed that the agricultural ecosystem has the highest species diversity among the other sites. The study also resulted in one species from the genus Mymaromma was sampled, which indirectly adds a second record of the rnymarommatoid species in Borneo. It was concluded that the abundancy of certain families of parasitic wasps are related to their biology as in either being generalist or specialist, as well as the presence of their arthropod host

Systematics and Phylogeny of Fulgoridae Latreille, 1807 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) from Malaysian Borneo

The Fulgoridae Latreille, 1807 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) or lanternflies is a family of charismatic bugs that are known for their unique structure and striking colouration. Borneo being one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots is known for its species richness residing in the tropical rainforests, including the Fulgoridae. The classification of Fulgoridae is not yet settled, and the monophyly of the family is still questioned especially on the position of genus Zanna and subfamily Dichopterinae. This is in part contributed by the lack of representatives from Emeljanov’s putative subfamilies being Cladodipterinae, Dichopterinae, Lyncidinae, and Strongylodematinae in previous studies. This study aimed to rectify the phylogeny of this group based on 134 morphological characters across 28 species from Malaysian Borneo. The status of Dichopterinae has never been analysed within the monophyletic Fulgoridae before and is presented here for the first time. This study was based on voucher specimens from major repositories in Sarawak and Sabah, as well as new collections sampled in Sarawak. Results from neighbor-joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian inference (BI) recovered the family as monophyletic including subfamily Dichopterinae and genus Zanna. There is a need to revise classification on the subfamily Aphaeninae as it was consistently not recovered as monophyletic in all three analyses. Fulgoridae also lacks a comprehensive systematic description. Descriptions were provided for four new taxa including the 21 previously described species from the family. Despite not being recognised as a bioindicator, Fulgoridae can be associated to forest which consists of old and large trees

Species Composition and Ecological Distribution of the Subfamily Cicindelinae Latreille, 1801 (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Based on Voucher Specimens in Sarawak

The subfamily Cicindelinae which belongs to the family Carabidaeare commonly known as tiger beetles. Despite the recent studies conducted on this taxon, current ecological knowledge on tiger beetles is limited. Thus, this study aimed to provide a current checklist of tiger beetles as well as their species distribution, abundances and habitat preferences in Sarawak based on voucher specimens from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Insect Reference Collection (UIRC). A total of 76 specimens of tiger beetles were examined in which comprising of seven genera from eight species. The genus Neocollyriswasrepresented with two species, namely Neocollyris (s. str.) ermaginataandNeocollyris (Stenocollyris)sarawakensis macrodera,while the other genera were represented by only one species,respectively. The most abundant species with64 individuals (84.21%)were represented by Cosmodela aurulenta, followed by Abroscelis tenuipes araneipesand Therates labiatus with three individuals (3.95%) and N.ermaginatawith two individuals (2.63%). In this study, there were eight ecological habitats being identified, namely heath forest, limestone forest, littoral forest, mixed dipterocarp forest, oil palm plantation, peat swamp forest, riverine forest and urban area. The data indicates that C.aurulenta being recorded at seven ecological habitats suggesting this species to have a wide distribution capability while species such as A.tenuipes araneipes, Callytron doriai,Cicindela sp., Myriochila (s. str.) specularis brevipennis, N.ermaginataandN.s.macroderasuggesting these species to have a very narrow habitat specialisation. The results of this preliminary study provide evidence on the need to conduct further studies on the ecological aspects of tiger beetles in Sarawak