Correlation between benthic macroinvertebrate distribution and substrate composition in selected recreational rivers in Kelantan, Malaysia

This study was carried out to determine the correlation between benthic macroinvertebrate and substrate composition in recreational rivers in Bukit Bakar, Jeram Pasu, and Lata Mengaji. Pebble count method and Surber net were used for substrates and benthic macroinvertebrate data collection, respectively. D50 of substrates compositions was calculated using the pebble count data and correlated with benthic macroinvertebrates compositions by using Pearson correlation. The highest D50 measured was at Lata Mengaji (Station 5) with 120.11mm and the lowest D50 at Jeram Pasu (Station 5) with 10.82mm. Therefore, results showed the different richness, composition, and distribution of families between the three sites. Athericidae, Chironomidae, Elmidae, Euphaeidae, Helodidae, Heptageniidae, Leptophlebiidae, Platystictidae, Psephenidae and Simuliidae show a significant difference between sites. However, among all of these families, only families Psephenidae and Elmidae had the highest correlation with D50 (p-value<0.05). This was concluded that the substrate size compositions and arrangement are factors that influence the benthic macroinvertebrate distribution in rivers

Species diversity of small mammals at Gunung Stong State Park, Kelantan, Malaysia

A recent small mammal survey was conducted in Gunung Stong State Park. Standard mist nets, harp traps and cage traps were used to document diversity of small mammals in this new protected area. This study reports five new distributional records of bats in Gunung Stong State Park and a first record of Myotis muricola in Kelantan. The study also shows that Gunung Stong State Park is one of the three areas in Peninsular Malaysia where all four Cynopterus species that can be found in Peninsular Malaysia coexist. This protected area also has Maxomys rajah, M. whiteheadi and Niviventer cremoriventer which are currently listed as Vulnerable, highlighting this location as an important conservation area for small mammals. Continuous surveys are needed as information of small mammal diversity in Kelantan is still scarce, and this study is a part of a series of small mammal surveys that have been carried out in Kelantan

Malaysian fruit bats phylogeny inferred using ribosomal RNA

Fourteen species of the Malaysian fruit bats (Pteropodidae) were used in this DNA taxaonomy using 1,334bp of the 125 ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA) valine and 16S rRNA gene segments. Previous studies using DNA found contradictious between morphology and molecular data in inferring the phylogeny of the fruit bat proposed by Audersen (1912). Our phylogenetic analysis using the neighbor-joining and the maximum parsimony methods did not support the monophyly of subfamily Macroglossinae and the cynopterine group of the subfamily Pteropodinae as proposed by classical taxouomist. This is cougruent with previous molecular studies. Here, we provide the first registered 12S rRNA, tRNA valine and 16S rRNA sequence records for Dyacopterus spadiceus in the GenBank database. This study represents the first attempt to infer the phylogeuetic relationship of fruits bats from Malaysia using molecular method