Short notes on saxproxylic arthropods of Muaya, Sipitang, Sabah

A short study to look at the occurrence of saproxylic arthropods was conducted in Muaya, Sipitang from 12th to 14th May, 2012. Two pieces of deadwood (45 cm and 26 cm in diameter respectively) were examined randomly. Arthropods collected were classified to class level. For Class Insecta, specimens were then identified up to order level. A total of 7 insect orders and 4 other classes of arthropods were recorded. Beetles (Coleoptera) were further identified to family level while termites (Isoptera) and ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) were identified to genus level. Among non-social insects, beetles were the highest in terms of individuals collected in 6 families. In terms of species, ants had the highest number with at least 12 species recorded

Biodiversiti serangga ranting di Rezab Hidupan Liar Endau Kluang, Johor

Kajian inventori serangga ranting telah dijalankan di Hutan Simpan Endau-Kluang, Johor semasa Inventori Biodiversiti Rezab Hidupan Liar Endau-Kluang, Johor pada 28 Oktober hingga 1 November 2008. Persampelan telah dilakukan secara pencarian oportunistik di sepanjang trail-trail kajian. Sebanyak 18 spesies (42 individu) telah berjaya direkodkan yang merangkumi empat famili iaitu Heteronemiidae, Aschiphasmatidae, Phasmatidae dan Bacillidae. Daripada jumlah ini Famili Heteronemiidae merupakan famili dominan (83 %) dengan kepelbagaian spesies yang paling tinggi iaitu 15 spesies. Manakala tiga famili yang lain direkodkan sebanyak satu spesies bagi setiap famili. Famili Heteronemiidae merupakan famili yang terbesar dalam order Phasmida. Kebanyakan spesies dari famili tersebut biasanya dapat ditemui di mana-mana hutan tropika. Spesies yang paling tinggi kelimpahan ialah Abrosoma johorensis diikuti oleh Lonchodes sp, Prisomera malaya, Diesbachia tamyris dan Pylaemenes mitratus. Senarai serangga ranting yang diperolehi dalam kajian ini merupakan senarai yang pertama kali dilaporkan bagi kawasan Rezab Hidupan Liar Endau-Kluang, Joho

Land Snail Fauna of Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

We surveyed the land snail fauna of 13 localities including three limestone outcropsin Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. Land snails were sampled using manual collection and identified tospecies level where possible. In this study, a total of 39 species was recorded. Species diversityin limestone areas was higher than that in non-calcareous areas. The genus Opisthostoma wasfound in all the 3 limestone outcrops. A random sample of about 20 shells of this genus fromeach site contained single but unique taxa among the three limestone outcrops. The threelimebtone outcrops were isolated by more than 20 km from one another. This result confirmedthe high endemicity of this genus. At areas deforested and perturbed by humans, we found twoinvasive species, Bradybaena similaris (Rang, 1831) and Subulina octona (Bruguibre, 1792),which have been widely spread over the world

Revisiting museum collections in the genomic era: potential of MIG-seq for retrieving phylogenetic information from aged minute dry specimens of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and other small organisms

Multiplexed inter-simple sequence repeat genotyping by sequencing – MIG-seq – is an effective PCR-based method for genome-wide SNP detection using the Next-Generation Sequencing platform, and it provides a potential solution to a central problem in museomics – the difficulties of obtaining useful sequence data from aged specimens with often degraded and / or low yields of DNA. We demonstrate and validate the cost effectiveness and utility of the MIG-seq workflow in obtaining useful and robust sequence data from aged museum specimens. We applied the MIG-seq approach to 55 aged (10 - 23 years old) millimeter-sized dry-mounted specimens of the hyper-diverse ant genus Pheidole. A total of 50,782,736 reads were generated from the 55 samples (259,902 - 3,693,375 reads per sample). The reads corresponded to 36,862 SNPs from 4,849 polymorphic loci; the SNP dataset was then used to construct a Bayesian phylogenetic tree. The topology of the phylogenetic tree was highly compatible with existing knowledge of phylogenetic relationships among species of Pheidole. Therefore, we recommend the MIG-seq method as a cost-effective and highly applicable pipeline for conducting phylogenetic and population genetic studies on aged museum specimens, potentially enhancing the relevance of specimen repositories in general towards modern biodiversity science and conservation biology

Nesting Biology of a Tropical Myrmicine Ant, Myrmicaria arachnoides (Formicidae), in West Java, Indonesia

Volume: 15Start Page: 307End Page: 31

Circadian pattern of Camponotus saundersi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)in Tropical Rain Forest of Danum Valley, Sabah (Malaysia)

The exploding ant Camponotus saundersi is a rarely studied ant species especially their behaviour. This research mainly composes of observations of the workers' circadian patterns. Observations were made on three colonies of C. saundersi in Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia. A five day observation period was allocated on each of the colonies. The circadian pattern was observed by counting the number of individuals that enter and leave the nest for one minute each in the interval of 30 minutes. Workers of C. saundersi were observed to be active between 0400 and 1900 hrs daily. There were peaks of activities within the active period. However, one of the three colonies showed a slight longer activity