Author : Noor Farikhah Haneda

Summary : A study to investigate the abundance and diversity of insects in forest habitat of different age after logging was conducted in the Sungai Lalang Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia. The main objectives of the study were to determine (1) the dominant insect in different forest habitats, (2) the biodiversity of insects, and (3) the assemblage of insects that can be used as bioindicator. Three different forest habitats were selected, namely : Primary forest, Five-year- old logged forest and ten year old logged forest. Various trapping methods were used to collect insects, namely : pitfall trap, yellow pan trap, malaise trap, window trap, and sticky trap. A total of 269,547 individuals comprising of 17 orders and 361 morphospecies were collected. Four majors order represented by Diptera, Hymenoptera, Collembola and Coleoptera were recorded. The number of Diptera and Coleoptera was higher in five-year old logged forest than ten year old logged and primary forests. The abundance of hymenoptera was high in ten year old logged forest, while Collembola was abundant in primary forest. These results suggest that Diptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera could adapt to the logged forests and they were able to utilize available resources from those forests. The richness and diversity of hymenoptera and Coleoptera were higher in primary forest compared to both logged forests. Moreover, Collembola and Diptera had high richness and diversity index in logged forests, however, the abundance, richness and diversity of insects differ among forest habitats. The results presented in this study show that surveys of insect should be conducted using as wide a variety of methods as possible because every method undoubtedly has at least one advantage over the other. Pitfall and yellow-pan traps had collected ground insects, such as Collembola and Coleoptera while malaise trap and window trap collected had flying insect, particularly Hymenoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera.