Riparian areas hold vast number of flora and fauna with exceptional contributions to the ecosystem. A study was conducted in Sungai Sepetang, Sungai Rembau and Sungai Chukai to identify the insect community in a riparian zone of Peninsular Malaysia. Sampling was conducted in six consecutive months from December 2017 to May 2018 during both day and night using sweep nets. Twenty sampling stations (S1-S20) had been assembled along the riverbanks with an average distance of 200 m between each station. The 17,530 collected insects were from 11 orders and consisted of Diptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Orthoptera, Blattodea, Thysanoptera, Mantodea and Odonata. The three most abundant orders were Diptera (33.84%; 5933 individuals), Coleoptera (28.82%; 5053 individuals) and Hemiptera (25.62%: 4491 individuals). The collected insect community consisted of different guilds such as the scavenger, predator, herbivore, pollinator and parasitoid. Sungai Sepetang and Sungai Rembau were dominated by mangrove flora, Sonneratia caseolaris (Myrtales: Lythraceae), while Sungai Chukai was dominated by Barringtonia racemosa. There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the composition of insects between the three rivers though clustering analysis showed that the insect communities in Sungai Sepetang and Sungai Rembau were 100% similar compared to Sungai Chukai which consisted of a totally different community. There is a significant negative correlation between abundance of insects with salinity and wind speed at Sungai Chukai and Sungai Sepetang.
Elaeidobius kamerunicus was first introduced to Malaysia from Cameroon as an oil palm pollinator in 1981. Since then, oil palm pollination has improved and the need for assisted pollination has reduced. Fruit set development and fruit production also saw significant improvements, until a reported decline that began in the late 1980s. Several factors may have contributed to such decline, but most researchers believe it is due to the low E. kamerunicus population. Therefore, a study was conducted to determine whether the amount of rainfall and the number of male inflorescences and spikelets influenced the population abundance of E. kamerunicus in Ladang Lekir, Perak, Malaysia. Sampling was performed each month in oil palm subplots, three for each age of palm age, from October 2015 to September 2016. A total of nine spikelets (three from the top, middle and base of a male inflorescence) were randomly selected from each male inflorescence on each chosen palm. They were cut early in the morning to avoid the weevil's most active time, thus making collection easier. The number of weevils congregating on each spikelet was then counted. The average number of E. kamerunicus per hectare (ha) living on oil palms aged four and six were 21,086 and 25,712, respectively. The amount of rainfall and the number of male inflorescences and spikelets were found to positively correlate with the E. kamerunicus population. The number of male inflorescences showed strong correlation with the E. kamerunicus population. However, in-depth study is needed to determine the relationship between E. kamerunicus and fruit set.
Ochralea was described by Clark in 1865 for a very large Oriental galerucine with elongate basal metatarsomeres. Subsequently, nigh more species were described in this genus. It was synonymised with Monolepta by Weise in the Catalogue to the Galerucinae in 1924, and accepted as such by most subsequent authors. Whilst revising the type species of Monolepta, M. bioculata (Fabricius, 1781), it became clear that Ochralea was a distinct genus. The revalidation and redescription of this genus, containing two valid species, is here proposed. Ochralea nigripes (Olivier, 1808) has one recognised junior synonym and Ochralea nigricornis Clark, 1865, and two new synonyms Ochralea pectoralis Harold, 1880 syn. nov. and Monolepta erythromelas Weise, 1922 syn. nov. This species is abundant and widely distributed in south-east Asia from Bengalia and Bangladesh to southern China, the Philippines and Sulawesi. Ochralea wangkliana (Mohamedsaid, 2005) comb. nov., is only known from a few specimens collected around Wang Kelian Perlis, Malaysia. Redescriptions of the genus and the two species are given, including illustrations of external and genital characters, and a distribution map.
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