A preliminary study on diversity and abundance of ichneumonids and braconids (Insecta: Hymenoptera) oj Ayer

Hitam Forest Reserve (AHFR) oj Universiti Putra Malaysia was conducted Jrom 4 - 11 April 2000. Results

showed that AHFR houses a variety of ichneumonid and braconid species. Generally, the ichneumonids were

nearly twice as abundant and diverse than braconids. However, both insect groups were significantly more diverse

in the middle than in the Forest fringes. Two more additions of ichneumonid subFamilies (Adelognathinae and

Orthopelmatinae) for Malaysia were discovered from this Forest

A. B., Yaakob

Abu Bakar, Idris

Hanida, Noor Farikha

Sajap, Ahmad Said

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

PertanikaJ. Trop. Agric. Sci. 24(1): 43 - 48 (2001) ISSN: 1511-3701© Universiti Putra Malaysia PressPreliminary Study on Diversity and Abundance of Ichneumonidsand Braconids (Insecta: Hymenoptera) atthe Ayer Hitam Forest ReserveIDRIS, A.lll, SAJAP, A. S~, NOOR FARIKHA, H~., YAAKOB, A. B~ and M. Y RUSI.AN~I School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences,Faculty of Science and Technology,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia2Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia,43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, MalaysiaKeywords: Diversity, abundance, Hymenoptera, Ayer Hitam Forest ReserveABSTRAKSatu kajian awal tentang kepelbagaian dan kelimpahan ichneumonid dan braconid (Insecta: Hymenoptera) diHutan Simpan Ayer Hitam (AHFR), Universiti Putra Malaysia telah dij'alankan dari 4 - 11 April 2000. Hasilkajian ini menunjukkan bahawa AHFR didiami oleh pelbagai spesies ichneumonid dan braconid. Secamkeseluruhannya, didapati bahawa spesies ichneumonid adalah hampir dua kali lebih melimpah dan pelbagaiberbanding braconid. Walau bagaimanapun, kedua-dua kumpulan serangga ini mempunyai kepelbagaianspesies yang lebih tinggi dan signijikan di bahagian tengah hutan berbanding di kawasan pinggir hutan. Dualagi tambahan subfamili ichneumonid (Adelognathinae dan Orthopelmatinae) untuk Malaysia Lelah ditemuidari hutan ini.ABSTRACTA preliminary study on diversity and abundance of ichneumonids and braconids (Insecta: Hymenoptera) oj AyerHitam Forest Reserve (AHFR) oj Universiti Putra Malaysia was conducted Jrom 4 - 11 April 2000. Resultsshowed that AHFR houses a variety oj ichneumonid and braconid species. Generally, the ichneumonids werenearly twice as abundant and diverse than braconids. However, both insect groups were signijicantly more diversein the middle than in the Jorest fringes. Two more additions of ichneumonid subJamilies (Adelognathinae andOrthopelmatinae) for Malaysia were discovered from this Jorest.INTRODUCTIONInsects are the most abundant animals on earthand two-thirds of insects inhabit the tropical rainforest. In Peninsular Malaysia, majority of theseinsects occupy the lowland forests. These forestsprovide habitats for thousands of insect speciesthat are functionally important to the forestecosystems. Insects can be pollinators,decomposers, herbivores, predators or para-sitoids. Most parasitoids are in the order ofHymenoptera. They use or parasitize other insectsfor reproduction. As such, they are importantregulators of other insect populations, mostlyherbivores feeding on various parts of plants.In recent years however, the rate ofdeforestation in the lowland forests is ratheralarming. The destruction of natural habitatsdue to logging and development pose thegreatest threat to insect communities in theforests. Since the parasitoid reproductiondepends on other insects, their own populationand role will be severely affected by the reductionof host population as a consequent of habitatdestruction. In view of the changing ecosystemof Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve and its vicinity, astudy on the diversity of Ichneumonids andBraconids, the two important group of parasiticHymenoptera was conducted. Presently, scantyinformation is available on these in Malaysiaexcept those of Idris (1996a and 1996b), Idrisand Nur Azura (1998) and Nor Azura and Idris(1998) .IDRIS, A.B, SAJAP, A. S, NOOR FARIKHA, H., YAAKOB, A. Band M. Y RUSlANMATERIALS AND METHODSThe study was conducted at Ayer Hitam ForestReserve (AHFR) , Puchong, Selangor, about 20km southwest of Kuala Lumpur and 6 km fromUniversiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), SerdangCampus, Selangor, Malaysia, at latitudes between20· 57' N to 30· 04' N and longitudes 101· 38'Eto 101· 41'E. The AHFR is an undulating lowlanddipterocarp forest ranging from 15 m to 157 mabove sea level, managed as a forest reserve bythe Forest Office of Central Selangor and wasselectively logged between 1936 and 1965(Mohamad Zakaria and Rahmat Topani 1999).The study sites were located within compartments1, 2, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of AHFR that has beenleased to UPM for 80 years under an agreemen tbetween Universiti Putra Malaysia and the stategovernment of Selangor.Two transects were established within thecompartments, both were parallel to each otherand 200 m apart. There were three samplingpoints (= treatments) chosen along each transectacross the compartments viz., two each at bothends and one in middle. The distance betweenthe points was between 200 and 250 m, and 30- 50 m from the outer sampling point to forestedge. A total of six malaise traps were used andone trap was placed at each sampling pointbeginning 4 until 11 September 2000. Trapswere left in the forest for eight days beforeinsects were collected and brough t to thelaboratory for sorting and identification. Thespecimen identification was made based on Wahland Sharkey (1993) and Townes and Chiu(1970).In reducing error and getting a morerepresentative data, the insects collected fromsimilar sampling point of two transects werepooled before analysis. Data were analyzed usingGW Basic program to get differential speciesdiversity between sampling points (Robinson,1991) while X2 was used to analyze differences inspecies and individual abundance amongsampling pointsRESULTS AND DISCUSSIONAbundanceThe ichneumonids and braconids collected areshown in Tables 1 and 2. There were eightichneumonid subfamilies collected viz.,Cryptinae, Anomaloninae, Cremastinae,Adelognathinae, Diplazontinae, Orthopelma-tinae, Pimplinae, Collyriinae and the sevenbraconid subfamilies include Agathidinae,Rogadinae, Microgastrinae, Gnamptodontinae,Opiinae, Cheloninae and Doryctinae. A total of38 morphospecies and 95 individualichneumonids were collected. The braconids onthe other hand had only 14 morphospecies and27 individuals (Table 2),3 - 4 times less abundantthan ichneumonid. Braconids also seemed to beless abundant than ichneumonids in thePermanent Forest Reserve of UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia (PFR-UKM) (ldris 1996b).As such, results of this study tend to disagreewi th universal claim that in tropical regionsbraconids are more abundant than ichneumonids(Noyes 1989, La Salle and Gauld 1993).Of the eight ichneumonid subfamiliescollected, the cryptine had the most numbers ofmorphospecies (22) and individuals (58) ascompared with other subfamilies and morpho-species numbered 22, seemed to be the mostabundant in AHFR (Table 1). This tends toagree with what was reported by Wahl andSharkey (1993) as the majority of cryptine speciesare generalist and/or idiobiont parasitoid havingwide host ranges irrespective of habitats. Themorpho-species numbered 21 (Table 1) seemedto occur at all sampling points, indicating theyare the least group that could be severely affectedby habitat disturbances. As for braconids,however, no single subfamily seemed to havemore number ofmorphpospecies over the others(Table 2). This indicates that AHFR does nothave much resource to support braconidpopulations.Although the collection was made for aperiod of one week, this study was successful inadding two more ichneumonid subfamilies forMalaysia, Le., Adelognathinae and Ortho-pelmatinae, from 18 as listed by Idris (2000) to20 subfamilies (55% of the total subfamiliesrecorded in the world). Interestingly, these twosubfamilies were not collected from the PFR-UKM located only 15 km away from AHFRalthough studies at PFR-UKM was conducted foralmost three consecutive years (Idris 2000,Hasnah 1999). This indicates that AHFR hasplants and food sources that support the insecthosts of Adelognathinae and Orthopelmatinaeas well as the parasitoids.There was a significant difference in thenumber of species and total individuals ofichneumonids or braconids collected among44 PERTANlKAJ. TROP. AGRIC. SCI. VOL. 24 NO. 1,2001PRELIMINARY STUDY ON DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF OCHNEUMONIDS AND BRACONIDSTABLE 1List of Ichneumonidae collected from Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, UPMCremastinaeAdelognathinaeOiplazon tinaeOiplazon tinae IIOrthopelmatinae IIPimplinae IICollyrinae IIPimplinae IIITotal 8SubfamilyCryprinaeAnomaloninaeSampling PoineIIIIIMorphospecies Number of Individuals1 110 114 316 317 118 119 421 122 82 I3 14 15 16 17 18 19 111 112 113 115 519 120 121 422 1321 31 22 33 14 162121231 12 53 4239 95a I, Inner, II (middle), III (near forest fringes)PERTANIKAJ. TROP. AGRIC. SCI. VOL. 24 NO.1, 2001 45lORIS, A.B, SAJAP, A. S, NOOR FARIKHA, H., YAAKOB, A. Band M. Y RUSLANTABLE 2List of Braconidae collected at Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, UPMSubfamilyAgathidinaeRogadinaeMicrogastrinaeAgathidinaeGnamptodon tinaeOpiinaeMicrogastrinaeCheloninaeDoryctinaeMicrogastrinaeSampling Point"IIIIIIIIII11IIIMorphospecicsI2121212312312Number of Individuals153111321Total 7 14 27a I, Inner, II (middle), III(near forest fringes)sampling points (:{l = 22.3 or 15.3, df = 2) (Tables1 and 2). Both parasitoid populations tend to belower at the forest fringes than in the middle(Tables 1 and 2). This is probably due to theabundance of insect hosts and food sourceswhich increases from the forest fringe towardsthe interior forest. The ground-dwelling insectsin AHFR were also found to be more abundantin the middle of the forest (Sajap et. al. 1999).In Sulawesi, Indonesia, parasitic hymenopteransare more abundant along the forest edge thanin the inner forest (Noyes 1989). This was saidto be due to plenty of nectar sources along theforest edge as compared to the inner forest.DiversityThe diversity (Shannon index, H') for ichneu-monid and braconid species is shown in Table 3.For ichneumonid species, H' was significantlyhigher (P < 0.05) at the sampling points 'I'(innermost) and 'II' (middle) than at thesampling point 'III' (forest fringes). In contrast,the braconid species was significantly morediverse at 'II' (H' = 2.45) than at 'I' (H' = 1.07)or 'II' (H' = 0). Generally, species diversity isinfluenced by the combination of two importantfactors i.e., the species evenness (E) and speciesrichness (R) (Pielou 1975). However, our resultssuggest that 'E' plays a more important role indetermining diversity than that of 'R'. As shownin Table 3, the ichneumonid species was lessabundant at sampling point 'I' (R = 4.09) thanat 'II' (R = 6.07) but its evenness was just slightlyhigher at 'I' (E = 0.89) than at II (0.86). Similarlyfor the braconids, the low H' value at 'I' maydue to the low E rather than R value. There wasno H' value for braconid species at 'III'. Thiswas simply due to only one species or individualcollected. Higher diversity in the middle of the46 PERTANIKAJ. TROP. AGRIC. SCI. VOL. 24 NO. 1, 2001PRELIMINARY STUDY ON DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF OCHNEUMONIDS AND BRACONIDSTABLE 3Shannon index for species diversity (H'), evenness (E) and Margalefs index (richness, R)among plots for Ichneumonids and Braconids collected from Ayer Hitam Forest ReserveFamily Sampling H' E RPoineIchneumonids I 2.49a 0.89 4.09II 2.76a 0.86 6.07III 0.56b 0.81 0.72Braconidae I 1.07b 0.77 2.44II 2.45c 0.95 4.15III Oa 0.00 0.00a I, Inner, II (middle), III (near forest fringes).In Column, the H' values with same letters are not significantly different (paired t-test, P > 0.05)AHFR than in the forest fringes is expected asavailability of life support resources (insect hostsand food/nectar sources) are more in the middlethan in forest fringes. As discussed in the'abundance' section above, the resourceavailability in the interior than at the edge ofAHFR may playa big role in determining the H'value of the parasitoids. The abundance of insecthosts and food sources are important for the lifeand reproduction of most parasitic Hymenopterasuch as ichneumonid and braconids (Jervis andKidd 1996, Jervis et al, 1993). Sajap et al, (l999)also reported that the diversity of ground-dwellinginsects increases from the forest fringes towardthe centre of the forest.It is interesting to note that H' of braconidsat T was significantly less diverse than at 'II'(Table 3). Unlike ichneumonids, the braconidsare generalist parasitoids, and most probablythey have high numbers of insect host speciesavailable around point 'II' than point T. Thespecialist parasitoids such as ichneumonids arevery mobile and actively find its hosts that arescattered in the landscape or forest (Hawkinand Sheehan 1994). Therefore, they have ahigher probability of being trapped than thebraconids.CONCLUSIONResults of our preliminary study indicated thatAHFR has diverse ichneumonid and braconidspecies. AHFR currently acts as a refuge formany animals including insects nearby that areadversely affected by loss of habitats due toforest destruction and fragmentation. However,the current diversity of these parasitoids maydecline if their life supports' resources continueto deplete as a result of forest disturbances. Thelongevity and fecundity of many parasitoids ishighly correlated with the availability of nectarsources (Idris and Grafius 1995). The on-goingand future projects such as housing estates andinfrastructure construction occurring around theAHFR may also change the forest environmen tconditions that may be unfavorable to theichneumonids and braconids, their insect hostsand associated food plants.It is expected that more insects will becollected if the experiment is prolonged for atleast a year. By so doing, information on thedistribution pattern and presence of some newspecies could be recorded. This informationmay help us to understand which species may bea keystone species, endemic to AHFR or usefulto be used as an indicator of habitat disturbance.Since Adelognathinae and Orthopelmatinaespecies have only been recorded in temperateareas, it is worthwhile to further investigate thesetaxa together with their hosts and plants thatassociate with them.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTWe are grateful to the Faculty of Forestry,Universiti Putra Malaysia for allowing us toconduct the study in AHFR. Many thanks toMrs Nor Azura and Ms Normala, Faculty ofScience and Technology, Universiti KebangsaanMalaysia for their assistance in the laboratory.This study was funded by IRPA grants 09-02-02-022 and 09-02-02-0170.REFERENCESHASNAH, T. 1999. Kepelbagaian Ichneumonidae dihabitat berbeza di Malaysia. B.Se. Thesis, UKM(unpublished).PERTANIKAJ. TROP. AGRIC. SCI. VOL. 24 NO. 1,2001 47IDRIS, A.B, SAJAP, A. S, NOOR FARIKHA, H., YAAKOB, A. Band M. Y RUSlANHAWKIN, B. A. and W. SHEEHAN. 1994. 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Preliminary study on diversity and abundance of Ichneumonids and Braconids (Insecta: Hymenoptera) at the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve

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Preliminary study on diversity and abundance of Ichneumonids and Braconids (Insecta: Hymenoptera) at the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve

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