Taxonomic And Ecological Studies Of Stoneflies (Insecta: Plecoptera) In Selected Rivers At Royal Belum State Park, Perak, Malaysia
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Date
2012-03
Authors
Wan Mohd Adnan, Wan Nur Asiah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Taxonomic study of stoneflies (Insecta:Plecoptera) was carried out by examining variations of ♂ and ♀ genitalia, morphology of their nymphs, size and shape of eggs and structures on egg chorion. Specimens were collected by bucket trapping (adult) and kick sampling technique (nymph) from rivers of Royal Belum State Park (RSBP); Kejar, Mes, Tan Hain and Ruok. A total of 98 (54♂, 44♀) adults and most of the 8132 nymphs were identified to the species level. A new species, Etrocorema belumensis was discovered and named after the RBSP. Several other species such as Etrocorema nigrogeniculatum, Kamimuria trang, Neoperla fallax, Neoperla hamata, Neoperla asperata, Phanoperla malayana, Cryptoperla fraterna were new records for this catchment. A pictorial key for stonefly nymphs from RBSP was developed to provide a useful reference for future study of stoneflies in Malaysia.
The values of physico-chemical parameters categorized all rivers as having excellent water quality. The occurrence of Plecoptera nymphs through out a year of sampling also showed that the rivers supported high diversity and abundance of this insect order. Perlidae was the most dominant (88%) among three families collected followed by Peltoperlidae (12%). Perlid Etrocorema, Neoperla, Kamimuria and Phanoperla, were widely distributed in all rivers. Plecopteran nymphs consisted of
predators (88%) and shredders (12%) with high abundance of this community encountered in leaf litter followed by on cobble, gravel, boulder and in pool.
Among various physico-chemical parameters of the water measured, dissolved oxygen (DO) content, total suspended solid (TSS), pH and river width ( ρ DO = 0.152; ρ TSS = -1.53; ρ pH = 0.218; ρwidth = 0.083, p < 0.05) very weakly influenced the abundance and diversity of stonefly nymphs. There was no seasonal difference in abundance of the nymphs collected in wet and dry periods as indicated by the scores of Mann Whitney U test (z = - 2.014, p = 0.44). The PCA ordination identified high microhabitat preferrence of the plecopteran nymphs for cobble, gravel and leaf packs.
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Keywords
Taxonomic and ecological studies of stoneflies , in selected rivers at royal belum state park