The insects of Klias Forest Reserve and its adjacent areas

Studies on the insect fauna of peat swamp forest ecosystems in Sabah are lacking. With looming threats of habitat destruction and biodiversity losses as a result of expanding agricultural conversion and the incipient drainage and fire hazards in the surrounding peatlands, it is vital that as much biological information is obtained to enable holistic formulation of conservation plan for Klias Forest Reserve (KFR). Knowledge of the insect diversity and abundance will provide important link to an understanding of the ecological functions of insects, as decomposers, pollinators, food sources, population regulators and soil engineers. The insect survey of KFR and its adjacent areas could generate requisite information on the conservation significance of the insect groups, their relation to human as pests, their medicinal uses and potentials for ecotourism, as well as present scientific evidence to the planning authorities of the pivotal link to maintaining environmental balance. The survey grouped the insect into six main taxa, namely Coleoptera (beetles), Odonata (dragonflies), Lipidoptera (butterflies), homoptera (cicadas and bugs), Hymenoptera (ants) and Orthoptera (grasshopers, katydids and crickets). Being a pioneering efforts, the overall results constitute the only known record of insects for KFR. Comparison to other earlier documented works was also attempted. In the peat swamp environment, insects do not play a major role in decomposition. Insects that favour succulent vegetation and are normally associated with human food crops, such as Orthoptera were encountered more in the open areas rather than forested environment. In the village, due to presence of food crops, more ladybird and leaf beetles were present. The results indicate that despite the poorer plant diversity, the peat swamp forest harboured a fairly high number of butterfly species. Butterflies are known as good pollinators. On the contrary, Homoptera fauna was not rich and similarly beetle fauna was poor from peat swamp forest especially those that inhabit the ground level such as the scarabs, carabids, cerambycids, lucanids and elaterids. Ants have been recently used as an indicator of environmental condition, but the 38 species collected in KFR were a poor representation. A few interesting finds were noted: For butterflies, Thaumantis klugius and T. noureddin, known to be elusive and restricted to dark forest understorey, were found during this survey. In addition, Troides amphrysus, a protected species in Malaysia, was present. There was low overlapping of species in almost all the insect groups investigated. This indicates that each sit had its environment niche and thus supported different insect species. There could be some unique species but due to a lack of good taxonomic facilities and expertise in Sabah, there was difficulty in identifying such species.