Abstract:
Malaysia, as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world, however, very little has been studied at lower
elevational mountain reserves and their beetle diversity, which could be decisive in resolving mysteries
in tropical biogeography. Objective of this study is to assess and compare the beetle diversity at three
selected lower elevational mountains to enlighten our understanding. Measuring the beetle diversity at
Fraser’s hill, Gunung Besar Hantu and Gunung Angsi at lower altitudinal (500 m) cline was selected for
sampling, where light, malaise and pitfall traps were utilized during 2013-2014 season. Altogether from
these three sampling sites 1,575 beetle samples were collected and they went through with some diversity
analysis. The Margalef index for Gunung Besar Hantu, Fraser’s Hill and Gunung Angsi showed 9.210,
7.214 and 6.777 respectively while Shannon-Weaner index ranged between 2.546 to 3.083. Evenness is
very high at Gunung Angsi (0.930) and Fraser’s hill showed moderate level (0.51). Simpson diversity
index is ranging from 0.859 to 0.946 while Shannon Weiner diversity index showed very close values
for Gunung Besar Hantu and Gunung Angsi but slightly lower value for Fraser’s Hill. Highest Simpson
diversity index and highest evenness index were shown by Gunung Angsi. Lower elevational ecoregions
of Malaysian tropical mountains are good laboratories to assess beetle diversity which can be utilized for
climate change studies and ecological disturbances. Long term monitoring program between different
mountains on beetle diversity and distribution would enhance the understanding of their habitat pattern in
relation to seasonal pattern and anthropogenic disturbances.
