Source : The Star, Malaysia, 15 Mar 2005
By : Hilary Chiew
  

	The biodiversity expedition bat research team could have discovered a Borneon species (top) which is recorded for the first time in the peninsula. The bat below is the small woolly bat (Kerivoula intermedia).

However, some scientists did uncover interesting specimens and did not dismiss the possibility of new species as further analyses continue in their laboratories.

Cicada researcher Azman Sulaiman might have stumbled upon one without even getting his feet muddied. The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia scientist has tentatively identified the two cicadas collected at the Kampung Runchang base camp as from the Chremistica genus.

Azman began studying what he described as the “rainforest singer” in 1996 as “nobody in Malaysia was researching on it”.

“Cicada comes under the group of aesthetic insects. Each species has its own unique ‘song’ as they are actually mating calls produced by the males to attract the females. Two species in the peninsula and one in Borneo are considered natural muezzin by the Muslims as they call out at dusk during the Maghrib prayer time,” he explained.

Another interesting discovery is the abundance of Dundubia gravesteini in Sungai Bebar, a cicada species that is rare in the peninsula but common in Sabah and Sarawak. Azman collected 382 specimens of D. gravesteini in five sampling days.

The botany team from Universiti Putra Malaysia loading their collected specimens into their vehicle.

Frog specialist Dr Norhayati Ahmad added two species, Rana glandulosa and Limnonectes blythi, to the 17 documented previously by a Wetland International survey in 2003.

The UKM lecturer pointed out that one specimen yet to be identified by the Wetlands International team was potentially new to science.

“I got a specimen of it too but someone put it in a plastic bag and it was gone before I got to look at it again,” she said in exasperation.

Such frustration is not uncommon in a scientific expedition with large numbers of people. Moss researcher Ahmad Damanhuri Mohammed was annoyed that his specimen bags were treated as garbage bins by inconsiderate camp-mates.

	Nephenthes ampularia – a round-shape pitcher plant found at Sungai Bebar within the south-east Pahang peat swamp forest.

His hope of rediscovering a species of peat swamp moss last seen about 50 years ago was also dashed. Earlier, he was informed by another researcher that the elusive moss was growing at one of the research transects. The species Sphagnum cuspidatum was first described in 1958 from a specimen collected from the Telok Forest Reserve in Klang, Selangor.

Relatively abundant in montane forests, sphagnum mosses are rare in the lowland peat swamp ecosystem. This moss was widely used in World War I as medical gauze. The acidic soil where this moss grows deters bacteria and fungi, making it near-sterile and hence, suitable for wound-cleansing.

Orchid scientist Dr Rusea Go of Universiti Putra Malaysia was surprised by the high orchid diversity in the peat swamp. Her team recorded 41 species, mostly of the genera Bulbophyllum and Dendrobium.

Of the 10 species of bats trapped, researcher Zalipah Mohamed said one may be a common Borneon species which has yet to be recorded in the peninsula. This is being verified, like many other specimens collected during the expedition.

The scientists’ findings will be presented at a seminar in June and published in a scientific report.