Local Beetles

THE Malaysian rainforest might harbour a beetle that could digest plastic waste. Or one that could be used to control crop pests naturally, without resorting to harmful chemicals. We might have such beetles in this country. No one knows because we still don't know enough here about these small yet important creatures.



Prof Mohamed S. Mohamedsaid and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's green beetle collection, also known as the 'King Kong'.

And while scientists are frantically trying to classify the many species that exist, the beetles, like so much of this country's fauna, are facing destruction.

"Being plant feeders, beetles are at the front line of any habitat destruction,'' points out Prof Mohamed S. Mohamedsaid, entomologist and leaf beetle taxonomist at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's (UKM) Centre for Insect Systematics in Bangi, Selangor.

Some species feed only on one type of plant. Destroy that plant and there go the beetles. This is why they make such good "indicator'' species - by sampling beetle populations, conservationists and scientists can track what's happening in the forest.

That's not all they're good for, of course. Indeed, while beetles might be easy to overlook, we ignore these creatures at our peril, for their importance in the natural scheme of things is underlined by their sheer numbers: there are nearly one million species of these creatures, making up a whopping one fourth of all species on earth.

While the bigger animals grab all the attention, these little creatures quietly go about their business of tending to the world's ecosystems.

They play a major role in pollinating plants; in fact, scientists theorise that beetles helped fuel the spectacular explosion of flowering plants during the dinosaur era (the Mesozoic).

It is also beetles that take care of nature's detritus by decomposing dead vegetation and animal waste. The humble dung beetle, for instance, rolls dung into balls that are buried for the consumption of its larvae.

Other species make excellent pest controllers: the descendants of a single ladybird beetle--those pretty orange and black beetles--can, in a single summer, eat nearly 200,000 of the aphids that destroy garden plants in temperate countries. Not a drop of chemicals needed.

"In Malaysia, there are 200,000 beetle species that have been described, but there are definitely more out there,'' says Prof Mohamed.

Eight years ago, the Centre for Insect Systematics made a start on identifying this magnificent diversity. Since then, Prof Mohamed and two colleagues have carried out extensive taxonomic activities, creating a sizeable collection of strange-looking bugs.


Leaf beetles from Borneo

Walk into the centre's rooms on the second floor of UKM's Biological Sciences building and you will be greeted by a strange, stale smell of mothballs and chemical solutions--sign of a busy taxonomic centre. "There are over 100,000 insect specimens at the centre,'' says Prof Mohamed as he opens up one cabinet to proudly show off his collection of leaf beetles, the species he specialises in.


In other cabinets, butterflies in bright colours and grasshoppers in hues of green are carefully arranged. There are close to 1,00 different beetle species, 500 butterfly species and over 250 grasshopper species as well as over a hundred cicadas. All are preserve-dried, pinned and labelled carefully for reference purposes.

It's taken Prof Mohamed close to 15 years to establish his collection of leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), the second largest beetle family in the world after the snout beetle (Cucurlionidae).

You realise the collection is a labour of love when he describes how he used to go on collection trips all over the country during semester breaks.

For the past 10 years, he's concentrated on Kinabalu Park.

"As a result of the study, we know Kinabalu Park is represented by 163 species of leaf beetles of the subfamily Galerucinae.''

That includes three new genera (Borneola, Kinabalua, and Paraxenoda) and 25 new species. One of the new species, a brown beetle, has been named in honour of Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman: Hyphaenia rahmani.

"The leaf beetles of Kinabalu Park are highly diverse. Based on the collection from an area called Sayap and from near the park headquarters (both highland areas), 108 species were recorded.

"This figure, however, is lower than the 176 species collected from the lowland forest of the Danum Valley Conservation Area (in eastern Sabah),'' Prof Mohamed says, reinforcing yet again how important it is to maintain the integrity of both Kinabalu Park and the Danum Valley Conservation Area.

If a large tract of forest is destroyed, he says leaf beetles there will be wiped out as they are unable to fly far to reach food plants in new areas.

To date, Prof Mohamed has identified 120 new species unknown to science--an attribute of this country's rich biodiversity, he says proudly.

All this new information is being recorded in the centre's journal, Serangga, which began in 1996 and which focuses on insect fauna from South-East Asia. Volume 6 is currently being put together.

While the journal is certainly a step forward in cataloguing this country's biodiversity, we would take an even bigger stride forward if we established a museum of natural history.

"A museum of natural history conducts research on species diversity and maintains collections of preserved animal specimens for research purposes. Most important of all, it helps research communities understand biological diversity,'' explains Prof Mohamed.

Malaysia has many museums that are educational but none that is research based. We did have one before WWII; the Federated Malay States Museum was established in Kuala Lumpur in 1906 when collections from the older Selangor and Perak Museums were merged. It was bombed on March 10, 1945, after which the ruins were razed and the National Museum erected on the site.

There's another compelling reason for establishing a natural history museum.

According to him, Article 7 of the Convention of Biological Diversity - which Malaysia signed in 1992 - stipulates the importance of identification and monitoring in conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity.

"Without taxonomy, the provision in the article cannot be fulfilled. A natural history museum is the bastion of taxonomic activities, where taxonomy is fundamental in understanding biodiversity,'' he says.

Though he is glad that the Centre for Insect Systematics in UKM is expanding, he says it won't be long before they run out of space as their collection continues to grow.

"All countries are proud of their natural history museums and Malaysia should have one to value our biological heritage,'' he stresses.

"Some countries have collections not only from their own environment but also from other parts of the world. Many Malaysia specimens, for instance, have gone abroad,'' he says.

Since Malaysia does not have a natural history museum, many specimens studied and collected by foreign taxonomists have been deposited in their museums.

For instance, most of the beetle species found in Malaysia were described by Europeans and taken back to their countries during the colonial period. In fact, all those foreign taxonomist names in text books is one reason why Prof Mohamed was inspired to begin his leaf beetle collection.

He says a natural history museum is not only entertaining, but it also encourages people to love nature and helps them understand biodiversity better.

"There are hundreds of thousands of other animal species, particularly the invertebrates from terrestrial and aquatic habitats which have yet to be documented from this country.''

Besides, at the rate at which Malaysia's fauna is losing its natural habitats, a museum of natural history might be the only way of preserving lost biodiversity.