The fauna of plant bug subfamily Isometopinae in Taiwan and Japanese Southwest (Nansei) Islands is reviewed. Twenty-five species are recognized, including two new species of Myiomma Puton, M. austroccidens sp. nov. and M. kentingense sp. nov., which are herein diagnosed and described. In addition, Isometopus yehi Lin, 2004 is synonymized with I. bipunctatus Lin; Isometopidea yangi Lin is transferred to Kohnometopus; and a substitute name, Alcecoris linyangorum, is proposed for A. formosanus (Lin Yang) (= a junior secondary homonym of Alcecoris formosanus Lin). An annotated checklist, with updated distributional record and biological information, is provided for all treated taxa. A new tribe Sophianini is proposed for two genera, Alcecoris and Sophianus, characterized principally by the conspicuously modified antennal structures. An additional new species, Alcecoris cochlearatus sp. nov., found during examination of related Oriental specimens, is described from the Malay Peninsula.
Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus caeruleus) is a well-known raptor that inhabits open areas such as oil palm plantation or paddy field. To determine preferable habitat and nesting site of Black-shouldered Kite in oil palm landscape, we conducted a study on Black-shouldered Kite's nesting biology in Carey Island, Selangor, Malaysia. We divided the island into six types of habitat and conducted road-side count of Black-shouldered Kite from April 2009 to February 2011. Whenever the Black-shouldered Kite was detected, we thoroughly searched the surrounding area for their nest. In total, we have recorded forty nests. The nests were built on 15 species of trees but most of the trees shared common physical characteristics. Some novice breeders also used oil palm tree as their nesting site. Structure and building materials of nests constructed on oil palm trees were different from nests built on other trees. Of all breeding attempts, only four nests which were located in residential area adjacent to young oil palm habitat were successful. Among important characteristics of successful nesting site include taller trees with strong branches and good leaf coverage. These trees not only protect nests from predator detection (except from other predatory birds) and physical environment but also facilitate Black-shouldered Kite's foraging activities by providing good vantage point.
Topographically complex regions often contain the close juxtaposition of closely related species along elevational gradients. The evolutionary causes of these elevational replacements, and thus the origin and maintenance of a large portion of species diversity along elevational gradients, are usually unclear because ecological differentiation along a gradient or secondary contact following allopatric diversification can produce the same pattern. We used reduced representation genomic sequencing to assess genetic relationships and gene flow between three parapatric pairs of closely related songbird taxa (Arachnothera spiderhunters, Chloropsis leafbirds, and Enicurus forktails) along an elevational gradient in Borneo. Each taxon pair presents a different elevational range distribution across the island, yet results were uniform: little or no gene flow was detected in any pairwise comparisons. These results are congruent with an allopatric "species-pump" model for generation of species diversity and elevational parapatry of congeners on Borneo, rather than in situ generation of species by "ecological speciation" along an elevational gradient.
Elucidating how dispersal and landscape connectivity influence metacommunity stability will shed light on natural processes structuring ecosystems and help prioritize conservation actions in an increasingly fragmented world. Much of the theoretical and mathematical development of the metacommunity concept has been based on simplified experimental systems or simulated data. We still have limited understanding of how variation in the habitat matrix and species-specific differences in dispersal ability contribute to metacommunity dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes. We model a metacommunity of rainforest mammals in Borneo, a tropical biodiversity hotspot, where protected areas are increasingly isolated by ongoing habitat disturbance and loss. We employ a combination of hierarchical models of local abundance, circuit-theory-based dispersal analysis, and metapopulation models. Our goal was to understand which landscape links were the most important to metapopulation persistence and metacommunity stability. Links were particularly important if they were short and connected two large patches. This was partly because only the very shortest links could be traversed by poorly dispersing species, including small herbivores such as chevrotains (Tragulus spp.) and porcupines. Links that join large patches into a "super-patch" may also promote island-mainland rather than Levins-type metapopulation dynamics for good dispersers, particularly large carnivores such as clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi) and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), reducing metapopulation extinction risk and thereby enhancing metacommunity stability. Link importance to metacommunity stability was highly correlated between heterogeneous and homogeneous landscapes. But link importance to metapopulation capacity varied strongly across species, and the correlation between heterogeneous and homogeneous landscape matrix scenarios was low for poorly dispersing taxa. This suggests that the environmental conditions in the area between habitat patches, the landscape matrix, is important for assessing certain individual species but less so for understanding the stability of the entire metacommunity.
Two new species of diminutive, sympatric, lowland, leaf-litter skinks of the genus Tytthoscincus Linkem, Diesmos Brown from the Sekayu region of Hulu Terengganu, Terengganu State in northeastern Peninsular Malaysia are described on the basis genetic and morphological data. One of the new species, T. monticolus sp. nov., was collected in a hilly riparian area along Sungai (=river) Bubu and is most closely related to an undescribed species from the Tembak Reservoir area. The other, T. keciktuek sp. nov. collected along Sungai Peres, is most closely related to T. perhentianensis Grismer, Wood, Grismer from Pulau (=island) Perhentian Besar. Sympatry and syntopy of multiple, specialized, unrelated, leaf-litter species of Tytthoscincus was previously only known from upland areas and these new species represent the first example of lowland of sympatry. More importantly, however, these endemic species add to a growing body of research and discoveries that continue to underscore the unrealized biodiversity of the riparian systems of Hulu Terengganu and the Sekayu region and their need for protection and continued study.
Amphicnemis valentini sp. nov. is described from the Ream Peninsula of Cambodia (holotype: Cambodia, Preah Sihanouk Province, Ream Peninsula, 10.52258 N 103.69556 E, RMNH) and Phú Quốc Island, Kien Giang Province of Vietnam, both in the Cardamom ecoregion. It is similar to A. gracilis Krüger, 1898, which occurs in Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, but differs from it by a long process on the male prothorax.
The Sundaic swamp clade of the genus Cyrtodactylus contains nine species that collectively range through Peninsular Malaysia and its associated land bridge islands, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, and Pulau Natuna Besar. Ancestral range reconstruction analyses using BioGeoBEARS based on an updated molecular phylogeny of the nine Sundaic swamp clade species of Cyrtodactylus demonstrated that this lineage evolved in Peninsular Malaysia, dispersed independently to Sumatra and Pulau Natuna Besar, Indonesia and most likely back into Peninsular Malaysia from Sumatra. This scenario is consistent with climate-driven, cyclical, ephemeral, geographic reconfigurations of Sundaic landmasses from at least the mid-Miocene to present.
Unlike those in the mainland of Southeast Asia, the Cladocera of the Malay Archipelago has not been intensively studied, except for the state of Sabah in the north-eastern part of the Borneo island. This study aimed to complete the inventory of the Cladocera in Sabah by looking at different types of water bodies including oxbow lakes, small lakes, reservoirs, ponds, ditches and paddy fields. From 32 sites examined, 35 species of cladocerans, nine of which were new records to Sabah, were found from 25 localities. With this new finding, the total number of cladoceran species in Sabah increased to 39 species, including five species of Sididae, four species of Daphniidae, one species of Moinidae, five species of Macrothricidae, two species of Ilyocryptidae, and 22 species of Chydoridae. Only 8 % ( three species) of Sabah cladocerans are true planktonic. This study illustrated that most cladocerans were associated with substrates in the littoral zone and thus appropriate sampling methods should be employed in different microhabitats for comprehensive biodiversity assessment.
The pselaphine genus Sathytes Westwood is represented in Borneo by a single species. In this paper we describe four new species: S. borneoensis sp. nov., S. liuyei sp. nov., S. larifuga sp. nov., and S. shihongliangi sp. nov. All new species were collected by light traps in Sabah, and show unique combinations of male sexual characters that lead to ready species discriminations. A key to Sathytes species from Borneo is appended.
Two new species of thinly encrusting sponge Hamacantha (Demospongiae, Merliida, Hamacanthidae) are described from Japan. Hamacantha (Vomerula) mamoi sp. nov. was collected from Sagami Bay, and Hamacantha (Vomerula) umisachii sp. nov. from off Hachijo Island. This is the first record of Hamacantha and the Hamacanthidae from Japan. H. (V.) mamoi sp. nov. is characterized by having styles, two types of diancistras and one of sigmas. Only two known species have the same spicule composition: H. (V.) acerata Lévi, 1993 and H. (V.) esperioides Ridley Dendy, 1886, described from New Caledonia, and south-west Africa and south-east South America, respectively. H. (V.) acerata has larger diancistras and much smaller sigmas compared with those of H. (V.) mamoi sp. nov. H. (V.) esperioides can be separated by having larger styles and smaller sigmas than those of H. (V.) mamoi sp. nov. H. (V.) umisachii sp. nov is characterized by having styles, diancistras, cyrtancistra-like diancistras and sigmas. Hamacantha (V.) carteri Topsent, 1904 seems to have similar spicule composition, however the size of all spicule types is different.
Micryletta inornata (Boulenger 1890), the type species of the genus Micryletta, was originally described from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Subsequently, this species has been widely reported from Sundaland (Sumatra and Malay Peninsula), Indo-China, Northeast India and South Andaman, up to southern China and Taiwan. However, since the original description there has been no further report of this species from the type locality or the island. During a herpetofaunal survey in Sumatra, several specimens that are morphologically concordant with the original description and the syntypes of M. inornata were found, and thus the species was rediscovered after 125 years. Here, we provide a redescription of the species based on the freshly collected specimens, along with a detailed morphological and molecular comparison with known congeners. Further, using molecular data from the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, our study recovered the Sumatran M. inornata as a phylogenetically distinct lineage from all other populations previously referred to this species. This confirms that all known Micryletta 'inornata' populations from regions outside Sumatra constitute several other lineages representing either new species or previously available names currently considered as synonyms, consequently requiring taxonomic validation in the future.
Groundwater is the prime source of freshwater in most small islands. A detailed groundwater and seawater chemistry study was undertaken from March 2006 to January 2007 to examine the evolution of groundwater in the shallow aquifer of Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia. Coastal groundwater aquifers especially for small islands are often exposed to heavy pumping and consequently to risks of seawater intrusion. Major ion chemistry analysis showed that the groundwater quality of the island experienced changes attributed to seawater intrusion. The groundwater has undergone a compositional change from Ca-rich to Na-rich which can be explained mostly by simple mixing process and cation exchange process. From the PHREEQC simulation model, calcite, dolomite and aragonite solubility showed positive mean values (0.65; 1.11; 0.51, respectively) of the saturation indices (SI) indicating supersaturation which attributed from the simple mixing and eventually cation exchange process. This information is important in protecting and remediating the disturbed aquifer situation.
Material collected between 2000 and 2014 on the island Borneo, including the Indonesian province of Kalimantan, the Malaysian province of Sabah and Brunei Darussalam, substantially increased our knowledge of Labiobaetis on this island. The total number of Labiobaetis species in Borneo increased to five, as only one species, L. borneoensis (Müller-Liebenau, 1984), was previously reported. Three new species were identified by morphology and partly by using genetic distance (COI, Kimura 2-parameter). They are described and illustrated based on their larvae (Labiobaetis bakerae sp. nov., L. penan sp. nov. and L. dayakorum sp. nov.); in one case, the imago is described as well. New reports of L. borneoensis are presented and the imago of this species is described for the first time. Labiobaetis moriharai (Müller-Liebenau, 1984), originally described from mainland Malaysia (Province Selangor), is reported from Borneo for the first time. The interspecific K2P distances in Borneo are between 19% and 25%, the intraspecific distances are usually between 0% and 1%. The total number of Labiobaetis species worldwide is augmented to 126.
Meiobenthos in Bidong Archipelago in coastal water of the South China Sea is hypothesised to have a certain trend of
distribution particularly in the island ecosystem where it is usually having different type of sea bottom. Nonetheless, since
it is located in a tropical area, the trend at the sub-tidal could be less obvious due to absent of clear season. Meiobenthic
sampling was carried out in Karah Island, an island in Bidong Archipelago, from the intertidal, towards the sub-tidal
zone covering the coral and non-coral area to see the trend in the density and composition. A transparent hand core
was used to collect benthos samples. Nematoda and harpacticoid copepods dominated the intertidal and sub-tidal zone
respectively. Harpacticoid copepods were higher in density in the non-coral sediment than the coral area. This could be
due to the high content of silt and clay in the coral area (2.98% of silt and clay). The 2-dimension MDS analysis on the
density data indicated the highest degree of scattering and an over-lapping condition for those intertidal and sub-tidal
samples respectively. ANOSIM result showed that the degree of similarity was lower at the intertidal (70%) than the subtidal
(reaching 90%) in the first sampling before both became no significant different in the second sampling. It could
indicate the stable condition in the subtidal than the intertidal ecosystem. The comparatively low density of meiobenthos
could indicate their response towards the environmental condition in the area which will only be confirmed by long term
ecological study.
Simulium (Gomphostilbia) okinawense Takaoka and S. (G.) tokarense Takaoka, both from the Nansei Islands, Japan, were morphologically reexamined and genetically analysed by using the COI gene sequences. The female, male, pupa and mature larva of the two species are redescribed. Morphological reexamination shows that both species are more similar to species in the S. asakoae species-group than to those in the S. ceylonicum species-group, by having a medium-long female sensory vesicle, yellow tuft hairs (S. (G.) okinawense) or yellow tuft hairs mixed with a few to several dark hairs (S. (G.) tokarense) at the base of the radial vein in the female and male, and medium-long larval postgenal cleft. However, the body of the male ventral plate (viewed ventrally) is parallel-sided (S. (G.) okinawense) or parallelsided or slightly narrowed (S. (G.) tokarense) and not emarginated basally, differing from those of most species in the S. asakoae species-group. Our genetic analysis shows that S. (G.) tokarense is in the S. asakoae species-group, and S. (G.) okinawense formed a separate sister clade with other members of the S. asakoae species-group with high bootstrap support. From the results of morphological and genetic analysis combined, S. (G.) okinawense and S. (G.) tokarense are transferred from the S. ceylonicum species-group to the S. asakoae species-group.
Decreasing water pollution is a big problem in coastal waters. Coastal health of ecosystems can be affected by high concentrations of suspended sediment. In this work, a Modified Hopfield Neural Network Algorithm (MHNNA) was used with remote sensing imagery to classify the total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations in the waters of coastal Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The adopted remote sensing image is the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) image acquired on 18 January 2010. Our modification allows the Hopfield neural network to convert and classify color satellite images. The samples were collected from the study area simultaneously with the acquiring of satellite imagery. The sample locations were determined using a handheld global positioning system (GPS). The TSS concentration measurements were conducted in a lab and used for validation (real data), classification, and accuracy assessments. Mapping was achieved by using the MHNNA to classify the concentrations according to their reflectance values in band 1, band 2, and band 3. The TSS map was color-coded for visual interpretation. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm was investigated by dividing the validation data into two groups. The first group was used as source samples for supervisor classification via the MHNNA. The second group was used to test the MHNNA efficiency. After mapping, the locations of the second group in the produced classes were detected. Next, the correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE) were calculated between the two groups, according to their corresponding locations in the classes. The MHNNA exhibited a higher R (0.977) and lower RMSE (2.887). In addition, we test the MHNNA with noise, where it proves its accuracy with noisy images over a range of noise levels. All results have been compared with a minimum distance classifier (Min-Dis). Therefore, TSS mapping of polluted water in the coastal Langkawi Island, Malaysia can be performed using the adopted MHNNA with remote sensing techniques (as based on ALOS images).
Inshore marine resources play an important role in the livelihoods of Pacific Island coastal communities. However, such reliance can be detrimental to inshore marine ecosystems. Understanding the livelihoods of coastal communities is important for devising relevant and effective fisheries management strategies. Semi-structured household interviews were conducted with householders in Langalanga Lagoon, Solomon Islands, to understand household livelihoods and resource governance in fishing-dependent communities. Households were engaged in a diverse range of livelihoods. Fishing, shell money production and gardening were the most important livelihoods. Proximity to an urban centre influenced how households accessed some livelihoods. Perceptions of management rules varied and different reasons were cited for why rules were broken, the most common reason being to meet livelihood needs. Current models of inshore small-scale fisheries management that are based on the notion of community-based resource management may not work in locations where customary management systems are weak and livelihoods are heavily reliant on marine resources. An important step for fisheries management in such locations should include elucidating community priorities through participatory development planning, taking into consideration livelihoods as well as governance and development aspirations.
Species of Devadatta from Borneo are studied using both morphological and molecular methods. As well as D. podolestoides Laidlaw, four new species are recognised from the island: D. aran spec. nov. (holotype ♂, from Pulong Tau National Park, Miri division, Sarawak, Malaysia, deposited in RMNH), D. clavicauda spec. nov. (holotype ♂, from Bukit Mina, Bukit Mina Wildlife Corridor, Sarawak Planted Forest Project, Bintulu division, Sarawak, Malaysia, deposited in RMNH), D. somoh spec. nov. (holotype ♂, from the Sungai Kahei area, Ulu Balui, Kapit division, Sarawak, Malaysia, deposited in RMNH) and D. tanduk spec. nov. (holotype ♂, from Poring Hot Springs, Kinabalu National Park, West Coast division, Sabah, Malaysia, deposited in RMNH). The Philippine taxon D. basilanensis Laidlaw is considered a good species rather than a subspecies of D. podolestoides. The Bornean species plus D. basilanensis are provisionally considered to form a species group, the podolestoides-group, within Devadatta. The species of the podolestoides-group are so similar in morphology and colouration that they are close to truly cryptic species. Two species appear to exhibit character displacement where their ranges overlap with other Devadatta species. A molecular analysis using four markers (COI, 16S, ITS and 28S) is presented. This analysis includes specimens of all species from the podolestoides-group and two Devadatta species from mainland Asia.