Diversity and Abundance of Suborder Brachycera (Diptera) from Selected Oil Palm Plantation in Bukit Perah, Banting, Selangor.

Abstract

Brachycera is a suborder of the order Diptera that includes flies, gnats, and other related insects characterized by their short antennae and robust bodies. A study on the diversity and abundance of Brachycera was conducted from December 2023 to January 2024 in an oil palm plantation located at Bukit Perah, Banting. The study employed Malaise traps that were set up at three separate locations within the oil palm plantation (edge, inner and interior). A total number of 2088 Brachycerans were successfully collected comprising 22 families and 105 morphospecies from this study. The inner area recorded the highest number of Brachycera collected with 2071 individuals (20 families, 94 morphospecies). The middle plot obtained the 11 individuals (5 families, 10 morphospecies) while the edge plot recorded the least abundant of Brachycera with only 6 individuals (4 families, 5 morphospecies). Phoridae was the most abundant family with 857 individuals followed by the Dolichopodidae, Muscidae, Piophilidae, Micropezidae, Drosophilidae, Ephydridae, Stratiomyidae, Hybotidae, Tephritidae, Calliphoridae, Hydroteae, Sepsidae, Syrphidae, Neriidae, Platystomatidae, Celyphidae, Lauxaniidae, Pipunculidae, Chloropidae, Ulidiidae and Tabanidae with 409, 215, 196, 147, 109, 68, 25, 17, 12, 10, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1 and 1 total number of individuals respectively. The Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (H') was highest at the inner trap (H' = 1.740) compared to the middle trap (H' = 1.468) and the edge trap (H' = 1.33). The Evenness Index (E') recorded the highest at the edge trap (E'= 0.9449), followed by the middle (E' = 0.8682) and the inner trap (E' = 0.3007). The Margalef Richness Index (R') value is also highest at the inner trap (R' = 2.488), compared to the middle trap (R' = 1.668) and the edge trap (R' = 1.674). The Kruskal-Wallis test shows that there was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the distribution of Brachycera among the landscapes. The study showed that diversity and abundance of Brachycera was higher at the inner plot of Bukit Perah of oil palm plantation compared to the middle plot and the edge plot might be due to several factors such as availability of water resources, animal faeces, understory vegetation and weather. The results of this study will provide valuable insights for other researchers into the variety of Brachycera species in the Bukit Perah oil palm plantation. These findings can serve as an overview for future studies on Brachyceran insects.