The diet of a roosting population of Asian glossy starling aplonis panayensis in Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Communal roosting by urban birds, such as crows, mynas, and starlings, can be a public nuisance due to excessive noise and fouling of the surroundings with droppings. Food availability within proximity to the roosting area is one of the key factors influencing roosting site preference and fidelity. The diets of roosting mynas and crows have been well-studied, yet little is known about the diet of the Asian glossy starling (AGS), Aplonis panayensis. This study focused on assessing the diet of roosting AGS and food resource availability around the roosting area. The AGS diet was assessed through microscopic analysis of stomach contents and droppings. The diet mainly consisted of fruits (76%) with a minor component of animal materials, i.e. ants, snails, and beetle larvae. Intact seeds found in the samples were identified using DNA barcoding. Seven out of the nine plant species detected were new records for the AGS diet. The most common fruit found in the samples was Trema orientalis, which grows extensively along roadsides within foraging areas of AGS. The availability of fruits of different fast-growing pioneer species around the roosting site ensured a continuous supply of food to the birds. Animal materials, which were consumed by chance during foraging, supplemented the fruit in the bird’s diet. Hence, the birds’ preference for the roosting site may have been influenced by the availability of various food resources around it

Morphological characterization and identification of two sesame (Sesamum spp.) ecotypes in Malaysia

Malaysia is endowed with favourable ecologies for sesame (Sesamum spp. L.) cultivation but lack of information on genetic variations among Malaysian sesame populations has been a barrier to select the desirable accessions for commercial cultivation. Present study was done to characterize and identify the level of variations among 30 accessions of two sesame ecotypes collected from Port Dickson and Serdang, by using 39 morphological (19 quantitative and 20 qualitative) traits. Descriptive analysis showed a great amount of similarity for 31 morphological traits, while 8 quantitative traits found to be significantly varied - as for stem circumference, branching, flower number and size, pedicel length, ovary size, capsule number and size. In clustering analysis, the populations of both locations tended to cluster in a main group according to their qualitative traits similarity, but separated in two groups based on quantitative traits, indicating that quantitative traits are the dominant trait for separations of accessions. However, the dendogram developed in this study revealed four distinct clusters in which most of the accessions between two ecotypes were closely related with a similarity co-efficient ranged from 0.744 to 0.487. Finally, all the accessions were to be considered as Sesamum radiatum due to the matching of capsule and seed characteristics with the taxonomic key developed for the identification of specific sesame species. The study therefore suggests that morphological variability observed in both populations is mainly attributed to differential habitat and soil nutrient conditions rather than genotypic diversity

Development of a Malaysian Sign Language interpreter using image recognition for the community to understand the deaf

In Malaysia, Person with Disabilities (PWD) with hearing problems or commonly known as the deaf, struggle to have a conversation with the communities who do not know or how to do sign language efficiently. The consequence is hearing PWD received unequal treatment in jobs and learning opportunities. This project aims to develop a Malaysian Sign Language interpreter to convert hand signs to texts, in order to facilitate the conversation between hearing PWD and the communities. The system would implement a camera and vision system to capture images of hand signs. Four hand signs have been selected. Stacks of these images were processed digitally using deep learning method, and eventually the trained network could recognize the hand signs successfully. This feasible study suggests that the proposed setup could be further implemented to train more hand signs and enrich the hand signs-to-text vocabulary

How important is aerial leaf litter for insectivorous birds foraging in a Malaysian tropical forest?

Aerial leaf litter is a vital resource for insectivorous birds in tropical forests, particularly those that rely on dietary litter-dependent arthropods. The present study quantified and determined aerial-leaf litter selection patterns of specialist and regular dead-leaf users. In total, 486 observation sessions were conducted in a lowland tropical forest from February 2014 to September 2015. At least two ‘specialist’ species (over 75% of the observations) and seven ‘regular users’ species (25–74% of the observations) were found foraging for arthropods among aerial curled dead leaves within the aboveground vertical vegetation layers. These species belonged to four genera of the family Timaliidae and Pellorneidae: Cyanoderma, Stachyris, Pellorneum, and Malacopteron. The chestnut-winged babbler (Cyanoderma erythropterum) and the black-throated babbler (Stachyris nigricollis) were two species that heavily exploited the aerial leaf litter, accounting for 89% and 76% of the observations, respectively. The present study indicates that aerial leaf litter could serve as a vital foraging resource for most gleaning forest babblers in Malaysian rainforests. Moreover, niche separation among these dead-leaf foragers occurred due to their differing vertical strata preferences. The variations in body and bill sizes among the studied species suggest that they consume various arthropod sizes and taxonomic groups. A morphological analysis identified Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and Arachnida as the dominant litter-dependent arthropods, and a molecular analysis revealed the presence of additional insect groups in the aerial leaf litter (e.g. Diptera and Lepidoptera). This study highlights the importance of maintaining undergrowth vegetation that can intercept aerial leaf litter to provide important foraging opportunities for forest bird species. © 201

Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica in Peninsular Malaysia: urban winter roost counts after 50 years, and dietary segregation from house-farmed swiftlets Aerodramus sp.

Mansor, Mohammad Saiful, Halim, Muhammad Rasul Abdullah, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Ramli, Rosli, Cranbrook, Earl of (2020): Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica in Peninsular Malaysia: urban winter roost counts after 50 years, and dietary segregation from house-farmed swiftlets Aerodramus sp. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 68: 238-248, DOI: 10.26107/RBZ-2020-002

Scelimena india : Hancock 1907, comb. nov.

<i>Scelimena india</i> Hancock, 1907 <p> <b>Note</b>. Transferred to the genus <i>Indoscelimena</i>. See under <i>Indoscelimena india</i> <b>comb. nov.</b></p>Published as part of <i>Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Tan, Ming Kai, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Azirun, Mohammad Sofian, Bhaskar, Dhaneesh & Skejo, Josip, 2018, An annotated catalogue of the pygmy grasshoppers of the tribe Scelimenini Bolívar, 1887 (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with two new Scelimena species from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, pp. 1-70 in Zootaxa 4485 (1)</i> on page 54, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4485.1.1, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/1437959">http://zenodo.org/record/1437959</a&gt

Scelimena wulingshana : Zheng in Huang 1992

<i>Scelimena wulingshana</i> Zheng in Huang, 1992 <p> <i>Scelimena wulingshana</i>: Zheng in Huang 1992, Liang & Zheng 1998, Cao & Zheng 2011, Zheng 2014, Deng 2016, Ding <i>et al.</i> 2017.</p> <p> <b>Type material</b> not examined. OSF does not report data on type series.</p> <p> <b>Type locality</b>: According to OSF PR China: Hubei. The type locality is, probably accoring to the specific epitheton, Wulingshan [= Wuling Mt.] Nature Reserve in the northwestern part of the Xinglong County, Hebei Province, 130 km from Beijing.</p> <p> <b>Notes</b>. We did not examine any drawings, photographs, or description of this species, so we cannot suggest to which species group to place the species. Deng (2016) reported the species from Sichuan (Mabian), Guizhou (Chishui), Hubei (Lichuan), and Hunan (Dayong, Guzhang).</p>Published as part of <i>Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Tan, Ming Kai, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Azirun, Mohammad Sofian, Bhaskar, Dhaneesh & Skejo, Josip, 2018, An annotated catalogue of the pygmy grasshoppers of the tribe Scelimenini Bolívar, 1887 (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with two new Scelimena species from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, pp. 1-70 in Zootaxa 4485 (1)</i> on page 54, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4485.1.1, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/1437959">http://zenodo.org/record/1437959</a&gt

Scelimena wuyishanensis : Deng 2016

<i>Scelimena wuyishanensis</i> Deng, 2016 <p> <b>Note</b>. Synonymized with <i>Platygavialidium sinicum</i>, see under <i>Platygavialidium sinicum</i>.</p>Published as part of <i>Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Tan, Ming Kai, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Azirun, Mohammad Sofian, Bhaskar, Dhaneesh & Skejo, Josip, 2018, An annotated catalogue of the pygmy grasshoppers of the tribe Scelimenini Bolívar, 1887 (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with two new Scelimena species from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, pp. 1-70 in Zootaxa 4485 (1)</i> on page 54, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4485.1.1, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/1437959">http://zenodo.org/record/1437959</a&gt

Scelimena spicupennis : Zheng & Ou 2003

<i>Scelimena spicupennis</i> Zheng & Ou, 2003 <p> <i>Scelimena spicupennis</i>: Zheng & Ou 2003, Zheng 2005, Deng <i>et al.</i> 2007, Deng 2016.</p> <p> <b>Type material</b> not examined. OSF does not report data on type species, but reports that depository is Southwest Forestry College, Kunming, PR China.</p> <p> <b>Type locality</b>: According to OSF, PR China: Yunnan.</p> <p> <b>Notes</b>. Deng (2006) reported 1♀ from PR China Yunnan: Pu'er: Jingdong, collected of 29.V.2001. This female could be the holotype female.</p>Published as part of <i>Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Tan, Ming Kai, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Azirun, Mohammad Sofian, Bhaskar, Dhaneesh & Skejo, Josip, 2018, An annotated catalogue of the pygmy grasshoppers of the tribe Scelimenini Bolívar, 1887 (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with two new Scelimena species from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, pp. 1-70 in Zootaxa 4485 (1)</i> on page 54, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4485.1.1, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/1437959">http://zenodo.org/record/1437959</a&gt

Scelimena guangxiensis : Zheng & Jiang 1994

<i>Scelimena guangxiensis</i> Zheng & Jiang, 1994 <p> <i>Scelimena guangxiensis</i>: Zheng & Jiang 1994, Jiang & Zheng 1998, Liang & Zheng 1998, Zheng & Ou 2003, Zheng 2004, Zheng 2005, Deng <i>et al.</i> 2007, Deng 2016.</p> <p> <b>Type material</b> not examined. OSF does not report data on type specimens.</p> <p> <b>Type locality</b>: According to OSF type locality is PR China: Guangxi.</p> <p> <b>Notes</b>. According to drawing of this species in Liang & Zheng (1998), it could belong to <i>Scelimena bellula</i> species group. It does not have ML, pronotum is smooth and the strongest projections are VL and FL2. Careful examination of the type specimens is needed in future. Deng (2016) reported specimens from Shangsi Hongqi, Shangsi Fenghuang, and Huanjiangmu.</p>Published as part of <i>Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Tan, Ming Kai, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Azirun, Mohammad Sofian, Bhaskar, Dhaneesh & Skejo, Josip, 2018, An annotated catalogue of the pygmy grasshoppers of the tribe Scelimenini Bolívar, 1887 (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with two new Scelimena species from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, pp. 1-70 in Zootaxa 4485 (1)</i> on page 53, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4485.1.1, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/1437959">http://zenodo.org/record/1437959</a&gt