All Creatures Great and Small #30
Butterflies
Borneo is the home of 1000+ known species of butterflies of which 81 species are known to live on Borneo alone. Libiki Bamboo Resort (LBR) is located in Bau, Sarawak, a newly developed resort area. 183 species of butterflies were found in this secondary upland forest. Serangga 2022, 27(1): 58-71.
Mosquito Virus
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and dengue virus (DENV) are mosquito-borne viruses transmitted by two mosquitos Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. This investigation determined if the virus was transmitted to offspring. There were mosquito larvae that were positive for the diseases. Serangga 2022, 27(1): 1-22.
Begonia
The classification of Begonia needs to be updated because of the number of species found in Borneo and because of the genetic material found. https://doi.org/10.24823/EJB.2022.1928
El Nino + Fish Catches
Chlorophyll concentration in seawater was lower during La Nina than during El Nino. This caused fish catches in Sarawak waters to decrease during La Niña and increase during El Niño. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2314/1/012013
Begonia New species
Twelve new species and one new record of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Sarawak, Malaysia, are described. https://doi.org/10.24823/EJB.2022.410
Mushroom
The natural habitat for this very rare species(Spongiforma squarepantsii) has been degraded by deforestation and necessitates that it be placed on the red list for fungi. The species was first described in Lambir Hills National Park, in Sarawak, Malaysia in 2010. http://smf.ekoo.se/iucn/species_view/519524/#
Freshwater Fish
A total of 385 freshwater fish species representing 49 families have been documented across the country (Malaysia) in this desktop study. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2314/1/012005
Slavery and the Sulu Sultanate 1899-1904
The takeover of the Philippine islands in 1899, which included Sulu, left America with a dilemma: The eradication of slavery in the Sulu Sultanate. Up until 1902, virtually all official assessments of Sulu slavery emphasized its mild and benign character, but the perception changed abruptly in the middle of 1902. This changed because of a greater American understanding of the Sulu culture. DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2021.2008720
Temperature Change
The tropical west Pacific seawater hosts the warmest part of the Pacific ocean. A cave in north
Borneo increased in temperature by 4.4 C from the last glacial maximum(19,000 to 20,000 years ago) to the Holocene. (11,650 years ago.) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32712-3
Bengoh Dam and Kuching Water
According to this study, the Kuching water supply is safe. Obviously, sedimentation behind the Bengoh dam on the Kiri river increased while downstream it decreased. DOI：10.35741/issn.0258-2724.57.4.16
Plant Movements
Gondwanan was a land mass where all the continents were linked together. As the continents separated, they carried plants with them. The plants that were in cold regions had to adapt as the continent travelled into tropical regions. This study traces four plants as the continents moved north from Antarctica. doi: 10.1111/jse.12853
Fire Risk
The risk of forest fires in non-forested areas in the tropics was four times greater than in forested areas. Increases in temperature, wind speed, decreased humidity, cloud cover and
precipitation were all factors contributing to the four-fold increase in fires.
Planting Trees
A method to determine which trees in an experimental plot have the best genes to become a source for replanting trees has been discovered. The desired traits are stiffness and strength and the use of spectroscopy and acoustic waves can best determine which tree(s) to use for cloning. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670335221117301
Early Medicine
The removal of the right foot 31,000 years ago in a Borneo youth has been discovered in a cave at the Sangkulirang–Mangkalihat Peninsula of East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). This is the first evidence of surgery in prehistoric man. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05160-8
Praying Mantis
Of the four genera of Praying Mantis( Leptomantellidae,) only two occur in Borneo. Each genus is represented by one species: Aetaella fragilis and Leptomantella bilineata Both species are found to have a wide distribution in Sabah and Sarawak. Sepilok Bulletin 31: 31-49 (2022)
Sarawak Museum Journal
December 2020 and 2021 have been released. Articles such as life under the Japanese in Sarawak, the Brooke dockyard and rock images from Niah are available from the Sarawak Museum gift shop. I don’t think they are online, if so could somebody alert me?
Cytandra Hotspots
The flowering plants belonging to the Cyrtanda have over 600 species. The places where they are concentrated are in north Sabah and Brunei, Kubah National Park, Maya Karimata and the spine of the Sarawak Mountains. https://research-scotland.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12594/20045
Sandakania Journal Published
Tree stands, Phymatarum (Schismatoglottideae) and a revised fern checklist are all included in this exciting issue. http://www.forest.sabah.gov.my/docs/frc/sandakania/Sandakania.23-2022.pdf#page=31
Clove Tree
The clove tree began life in the centre of Malaysia – Indonesia and spread outward to Africa and Hawaii and the Pacific islands. This sub-canopy tree is widely cultivated throughout the region. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32637-x
BorneoHistory.net
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Kuching, Sarawak
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