Daytime Assessment Sg Miri 30th Jan 2011

Participants : Musa, Nazeri, Anura, Joyce, Faye
Location : Sg Miri
Date : 30th Jan 2011

First ?Pteroptyx bearni larvae in Sarawak Found

?P. bearni top view. (Photograph by Daniel Kong)

During our overnite stay at Similajau National Park for Waterbirds and Wetland Habitats Survey of the Sarawak Coast, we discovered something special. On the night of the 13th Jan 2011, Daniel Kong and I went out to Likau river bank along the educational track to check things out. We were specifically out there that nite to go look for fireflies larvae.


The 3 ?P. bearni Larvae (Photograph by Daniel Kong)

We didn't spot aby larvae along the wooden plank, so we went down to the ground on all fours crawling without any lights. As we entered the trail, about 5 meter along the track, we saw the first flashing a firefly larvae. I moved in closely and switched on my head light when I got close to our quarry. I was expecting a large larva, what was flashing instead was a larva so small it didn't even reach 5 mm in length. We secured the larvae in a plastic vial, Daniel found two more.


?P. bearni 6 mm long side view. (Photograph by Daniel Kong)


?P. bearni View from below (Photograph by Daniel Kong)

After safely securing 3 larvae, we concluded our foray. By then the wind was blowing hard and rain had started to fall. We decided to return to base.

At the hostel Daniel had lots of fun making macro photographs of the newly acquired larvae.

The larvae are presumably of the ?Pteroptyx bearni (E.Cordier 1808), this was surmised from the fact that a firefly sampled along this river was identified previously as P. bearni adult.

We are presently reconfirming the identity of this special little creature ... WATCH THIS SPACE!

Article by Musa Musbah (edited by Nazeri Abghani)
Images by Daniel Kong

CFZ Firefly Survey Bakam and Sg Raan 06th Jan 2011

Nighttime Assessment of Fireflies at Sg Bakam and Sg Raan:
06th Jan 2010

Observers :
Musa, Sara, Nazeri, Joyce, Remli , Pak Juji's son (boatman).

Jety/Berth Location: Bakam River Juji House Jetty 4°14'36.98"N 113°55'43.99"E Raan River Tamu Jetty 4°14'47.08"N 113°55'27.82"E


Sg Bakam


Sg Raan

We took off at 18:40 from Juji House jetty

Field work

START Time: 18:40

Field work FINISH Time: 20:18

PHYSICAL CONDITION:

a. MoonPhase :

6 moon day, moon not seen cloud covered.

b. WeatherDrizzling, slighty windy, however raining stopped when we survey Sg Raan.

Relative Humidity: 86%

Water temperature not taken

Air temperature 27.1 ° C

Water pH : 6 at Both River

Specific gravity: At jetty 1.004 at Juji Jetty, 1.000 at end of Raan

Wind : Slight Wind, a little breeze

No Haze

c. River ConditionCurrent: Slow rising tide, Whitish sediment.
Boat used: Yamaha 40 hp.

Survey Average Speed 4.0 Km/hr.

Tide: going up

Notes:

We decided to do Sg Bakam first considering the short distance of boat travel involved ie. slightly more than 1.2 km. The river is clean, of whitish sediment runoff, very small and shallow.

Along the banks were several grassy areas but most were orchards's belonging to the villagers scattered along the river. There were also several houses built on the bank of the river right at the edge. There were no mangroves recorded along Sg Bakam at this stage.

All along our traverse, we recorded presence of rover fireflies and two trees that harbored a group of fireflies of about 10-20 rovers. These were not the congregating types.

Just before the Sg Bakam concrete bridge we recorded a juvenile crocodile between vegetation by the riverbank. We have been informed earlier by Pak Juji of the presence of a large crocodile specimen of 6ft girth in Sg Bakam, it was seen basking at the estuary several months back.

We surveyed until 1.2 km of Sg Bakam from the bridge.

After Sg Bakam we reconvened at the Kg Bakam Tamu to board another boat to survey Sg Raan. Sg Raan and Sg Bakam share the same estuary. While Sg Bakam traverses inline, Sg Raan meanders gently along the coast before traversing inline after an almost 90 degree turn inland.


Musa and Joyce taking measurements from the water sample.


One of the several productive display trees along Sg Raan, mangrove apple tree.


A few samples from the nite glowing brightly, greenish hue. The population here seems larger than the one we've seen elsewhere before, it would be interesting to get them id.

We entered the Sg Raan and immediately saw our first display tree at WPT 414 at 19:28. On previous late night visits here between 10:30pm and 11:30pm, we did not notice any fireflies. Musa had been to this bridge twice previously but late at night and didn't noticed any presence of fireflies. Perhaps this again support the notion that the peak firefly display occurs only between sunset to 8:30pm.

We saw many display trees along the river after the Kampung Kuala Bakam, along the Melanau settlements by the rivers edge. The river was scattered with large sea worthy fishing boats belonging to the villagers.

We recorded a high abundance of display trees after the Hawai Beach wooden bridge. Visual estimates put the numbers to between approximately 50 but upon sweeping with our capture nets, we were surprised with actual number of fireflies exceeding that initial estimates by about 3x. Most of the fireflies were flashing away underneath the leaves of their host trees. Some already with mates were there too hidden from view. We collected several good male samples along this traverse for later identification.

We stopped the survey after a 2.2 km traverse when the river became significantly narrow which does not allow our largish boat to enter. We took a bottle of water as a sample sample and headed back to the jetty.

Our boat driver recorded sightings of 4 crocodiles, we only made two visual contacts. One was a juvenile and the other a sizable young adult with very bright eyes. Our driver informed us that he was aware of cases of illegal crocodile hunting for the Chinese restaurant market in Sg Raan.

On hindsight, we had probably missed the peak display period of the Sg Raan congregating fireflies by starting the survey at Sg Bakam first. We can safely say that most of Sg Bakam is in a degraded state as afar as fireflies are concerned. Sg Raan however is still lined with nipah, pedada and bakau, ideal haunts for these little beetles.

Having said that, the situation at Sg Raan can only go downhill for these fireflies without further measures being taken to halt any related riverside development along it's banks. Without a doubt present fishermen settlements along the river has taken down with it a few display trees already in the past.

The group of the berembang trees after Hawai Beach bridge deserves to be protected for the healthy number of display trees as well as large numbers of displaying fireflies found there.

Bakam River

WPT Time Co-ordinate Fauna Side Counts Remarks

407 18:56 N4 14.728 E113 55.644 F L 2 Roving fireflies at Bamboo tree

408 18:59 N4 14.608 E113 55.649 F L 1 Roving

409 19:00 N4 14.613 E113 55.684 F L 1 Roving low

410 19:05 N4 14.598 E113 55.839 F L 1 Roving high

411 19:05 N4 14.586 E113 55.842 F L 10 at Bamboo tree

412 19:06 N4 14.555 E113 55.841 F R 1 roving

413 19:06 N4 14.552 E113 55.848 F L 10 at Bamboo tree

2 display trees and roving fireflies

Raan River

WPT Time Co-ordinate Fauna Side Counts Remarks

414 19:28 N4 14.952 E113 55.517 F L 10 Nipah

415 19:28 N4 14.966 E113 55.521 F L 20 Nipah

416 19:32 N4 14.986 E113 55.520 F L 10 Berembang

417 19:34 N4 15.046 E113 55.563 F L 20 Mangrove

418 19:34 N4 15.052 E113 55.573 F L 20 Berembang

419 19:37 N4 15.062 E113 55.587 F L 10 Berembang

420 19:38 N4 15.096 E113 55.616 F L 20 Nipah

422 19:48 N4 15.519 E113 55.846 F L+R 50 Nipah tree colony

423 19:49 N4 15.533 E113 55.861 F L+R 50 Nipah tree colony

424 19:53 N4 15.545 E113 55.865 F R 50 Nipah tree colony

425 19:55 N4 15.571 E113 55.879 F L 1

426 19:56 N4 15.597 E113 55.895 F L 1

427 19:56 N4 15.609 E113 55.902 F L 50 Nipah

428 19:57 N4 15.618 E113 55.915 F R 20 Bakau

429 19:59 N4 15.626 E113 55.918 F R 50 Berembang

430 19:59 N4 15.634 E113 55.926 F L 50 Nipah

431 19:59 N4 15.646 E113 55.941 F R 50 Berembang

432 20:00 N4 15.658 E113 55.957 F L 100 Berembang

433 20:01 N4 15.675 E113 55.973 F L 50 Berembang

434 20:01 N4 15.680 E113 55.976 F L 100 Berembang

435 20:02 N4 15.700 E113 55.993 F L 1 Rover

438 20:18 N4 15.001 E113 55.517 C R 1 Large

18 display trees, 4 roving fireflies

Note:

F=fireflies

C=Crocodiles

L=Left side of the river according to direction of travel

R=Right

We collected several samples along Sg Raan:
WPT 415 male 2 female 2
WPT 418 male 1 female 2
WPT 420 male 2

WPT 423 male 8 female 2
WPT 428 male 3 female 1

Collection of the males will help us tremendously in identifying the firefly species at Sg Raan.

Article by Musa Musbah and Nazeri Abghani;

Images by Sara Wong;
Maps and tracks by Musa Musbah

MNS Miri Branch CFZ/Jan 2011

CFZ Firefly Survey Sg Miri, Sg Adong, Sg Maloi 01st Jan 2011

Nite time firefly assessment of Sg Miri, Sg Adong and Sg Maloi
Date : 01 Jan 2011

Observers Name :
Sara, Nazeri, Dominique, Bor Seng, Tracy , Bujang Matzain (boatman) and Musa.


Our overall coverage of 23kms by boat.


Sg Adong, 2.3 kms.


Sg Maloi, 1.3 kms.


Group photo by Sara Wong at the start of the nite's survey, team members eagerly waiting for our boatman since 1830hrs.

Last nite, 01.01.2011, we completed 23 km of CFZ Nite time assessment from Piasau Boat Club Jetty covering Sg Miri, Sg Adong , and Sg Maloi.

Thi sresulted in additional coverage of an additional 24km of Sg Miri which have not been surveyed before. These are area from Piasau Utara to Lutong old airport as well as some portions near the squatter area along Pujut 10.

Over Sg Adong we covered 2.3 km and recorded 21 display trees before we reached the survey endpoint where the river was too small for the boat. All the fireflies encountered here are those species prefering high trees.

At several locations along the river we saw a fishing line across the river. These lines are used to hang mist nets for trapping pigeons and other birds. We also ran across two fishing net, one caught on our outboard propeller.

Along the way between Sungai Dalam and Maloi junction, we did not notice as many display trees as previously. There were only 3 display trees with about 50 individuals. Our market Binjai tree did not have any fireflies display this nite.


The nite's only firefly sample escaped from our net, we discovered that this particular species can fly through nets!

For Sg Maloi, we covered 1.3 kms into the tributary up to an open area cleared for oil plam. At this point we also saw a man made canal to drain the swamp. We recorded 3 Display trees along Sg Maloi.

This particular started rather late than usual possibly hinting at the reasons behind the poor show of display trees encountered. The last of the peak display period was probably encountered around 2000 hrs near Taman Bayshore where the congregating fireflies were displaying are at the very low tree lines and just above water.

The best time for peak display (based on other studies and our own experience thus far) is between sunset to 2000hrs. This late survey can be safely concluded as not being a good indicative of fireflies populations in the rivers covered.

Approaching bad weather also can reduce presence of displaying firelies as shown last night when we did not notice any fireflies on the way back on previously displaying trees along Pujut 4 to Pujut 10. It was just near here when we encountered heavy rain.


The team was hammered by unexpected heavy rain from Pujut 10 all the way to Piasau Boat Club jetty. Though the weather forecast said that there would be rain we didn't expect it to pour at that moment since the whole day prior was awfully bright and lovely for a new year's day.

Though we all came back home soaking wet way past midnite, we covered the rivers we wanted to cover on our first CFZ outing for 2011. The team felt it necessary to cover the area again during the daytime to properly assess the different threats and landuse schemes in the area. Most of the area we covered this nite were in an area already slotted for development either for urban development and/or agriculture.

Fieldnotes:

Jety/Berth Location: Piasau Boat Club Jetty.
Location : 4°26'4.46"N 114° 0'5.78"E

We took off at 19:48 from the jetty

Field work START Time: 19:48
Field work FINISH Time: 22:41

Reach Jetty at 00:35 2nd. Jan 2011

PHYSICAL CONDITION:

a. Moon
Phase : New moon, moon not seen cloud covered.

b. Weather
Cloudy, with some bright starry area, however raining at the after the survey completed.

Relative Humidity: 72%

Water temperature 29.9 ° C
Air temperature 28.8 ° C
Water pH : 6 at Piasau PBC jetty, 6 at Adong junction, 5.5 at Maloi Junction.
Specific gravity: At jetty 1.008 at PBC Jetty, 1.008 at Adong Junction, 1.002 at end of Maloi Track.

Wind : Slight Wind, a little breeze at Adong and Maloi.
No Haze

c. River Condition
Current: Fast moving down, Tanning River water.

Boat used: Yamaha 40 hp.
Survey Average Speed 7.0 Km/hr.
Tide: High going down

River WPT DATE Time Co-ordinate Fauna Side Count n Remarks
Miri 302 01-Jan-11 19:51:34 N4 26.760 E114 00.230 F left 20
Miri 303 01-Jan-11 19:53:39 N4 26.905 E114 00.318 Firefly left 20
Miri 304 01-Jan-11 19:54:12 N4 26.938 E114 00.347 Firefly left 30
Miri 305 01-Jan-11 19:54:50 N4 26.976 E114 00.382 Firefly left 20
Miri 306 01-Jan-11 19:55:15 N4 27.001 E114 00.406 Firefly left 30
Miri 307 01-Jan-11 19:55:26 N4 27.012 E114 00.418 Firefly left 50
Miri 308 01-Jan-11 19:55:34 N4 27.019 E114 00.427 Firefly left 100
Miri 309 01-Jan-11 19:56:07 N4 27.050 E114 00.458 Firefly left 100
Miri 310 01-Jan-11 19:57:40 N4 27.164 E114 00.527 Firefly left 50
Miri 311 01-Jan-11 19:58:25 N4 27.213 E114 00.551 Firefly left 100
Miri 312 01-Jan-11 19:58:41 N4 27.231 E114 00.560 Firefly left 200
Miri 313 01-Jan-11 19:59:14 N4 27.266 E114 00.581 Firefly left 50
Miri 314 01-Jan-11 20:01:20 N4 27.405 E114 00.657 Firefly left 20
Miri 315 01-Jan-11 20:01:28 N4 27.414 E114 00.659 Firefly left 50
Miri 316 01-Jan-11 20:02:01 N4 27.450 E114 00.670 Firefly left 20
Miri 317 01-Jan-11 20:03:36 N4 27.557 E114 00.680 Firefly left 100
Miri 318 01-Jan-11 20:03:54 N4 27.577 E114 00.679 Firefly left 50
Miri 319 01-Jan-11 20:04:56 N4 27.646 E114 00.665 Firefly left 100
Miri 320 01-Jan-11 20:06:38 N4 27.762 E114 00.626 Firefly Right 50
Miri 322 01-Jan-11 20:08:32 N4 27.882 E114 00.559 Firefly Right 20
Miri 323 01-Jan-11 20:08:45 N4 27.897 E114 00.555 Firefly Right 20
Miri 324 01-Jan-11 20:09:16 N4 27.934 E114 00.550 Firefly Right 100 few trees
Miri 325 01-Jan-11 20:09:36 N4 27.958 E114 00.548 Firefly Right 50 SQ opposite
Miri 326 01-Jan-11 20:10:18 N4 28.009 E114 00.554 Firefly Right 50 SQ opposite
Miri 327 01-Jan-11 20:10:27 N4 28.018 E114 00.556 Firefly Right 100 SQ opposite
Miri 328 01-Jan-11 20:10:42 N4 28.035 E114 00.563 Firefly Right 20 SQ opposite
Miri 330 01-Jan-11 20:12:05 N4 28.107 E114 00.633 Firefly Right 50 Lutong Brd
Miri 331 01-Jan-11 20:15:33 N4 27.978 E114 00.808 Firefly Right 50
Miri 332 01-Jan-11 20:19:26 N4 27.734 E114 00.916 Firefly Right 50 next to house
Miri 333 01-Jan-11 20:19:49 N4 27.713 E114 00.932 Firefly left 100
Miri 334 01-Jan-11 20:20:24 N4 27.680 E114 00.955 Firefly left 100
Miri 335 01-Jan-11 20:21:54 N4 27.590 E114 01.002 Firefly Right 200 in front of house
Miri 336 01-Jan-11 20:22:27 N4 27.553 E114 01.014 Firefly Right 100
Miri 337 01-Jan-11 20:23:55 N4 27.454 E114 01.022 Egret Left 100
Miri 338 01-Jan-11 20:24:13 N4 27.433 E114 01.023 Firefly Right 100
Miri 339 01-Jan-11 20:24:41 N4 27.401 E114 01.031 Firefly Right 50
Miri 340 01-Jan-11 20:26:02 N4 27.346 E114 01.101 Firefly Right 100
Miri 341 01-Jan-11 20:26:16 N4 27.344 E114 01.118 Firefly Right 100
Miri 342 01-Jan-11 20:26:27 N4 27.343 E114 01.131 Firefly Right 100
Miri 343 01-Jan-11 20:29:17 N4 27.309 E114 01.294 Firefly left 100
Miri 348 01-Jan-11 20:29:55 N4 27.270 E114 01.313 Firefly left 50
Miri 349 01-Jan-11 20:32:22 N4 27.101 E114 01.312 Firefly left 50
Miri 352 01-Jan-11 20:34:10 N4 26.974 E114 01.292 Firefly left 100
Miri 355 01-Jan-11 20:37:17 N4 26.747 E114 01.279 Firefly left 100
Miri 356 01-Jan-11 20:37:31 N4 26.730 E114 01.286 Firefly left 200
Miri 357 01-Jan-11 20:39:01 N4 26.623 E114 01.352 Firefly left 100
Miri 359 01-Jan-11 20:39:59 N4 26.559 E114 01.389 Firefly left 200
Miri 361 01-Jan-11 20:40:33 N4 26.524 E114 01.411 Firefly left 100
Miri 362 01-Jan-11 20:41:02 N4 26.490 E114 01.423 Firefly left 50
Miri 363 01-Jan-11 20:41:28 N4 26.461 E114 01.432 Firefly left 100
Miri 364 01-Jan-11 20:43:09 N4 26.344 E114 01.459 Firefly left 200
Miri 365 01-Jan-11 20:44:28 N4 26.244 E114 01.475 Firefly left 100
Miri 367 01-Jan-11 20:45:45 N4 26.149 E114 01.489 Firefly left 50
Miri 368 01-Jan-11 20:46:39 N4 26.082 E114 01.498 Firefly left 300
Miri 369 01-Jan-11 20:47:15 N4 26.039 E114 01.504 Egret left 6 roosting
Miri 370 01-Jan-11 20:47:30 N4 26.021 E114 01.505 Egret left 1 roosting
Miri 371 01-Jan-11 20:48:17 N4 25.963 E114 01.514 Firefly Right 50
Miri 372 01-Jan-11 20:49:10 N4 25.898 E114 01.517 Egret left 10 roosting
Miri 373 01-Jan-11 20:49:47 N4 25.852 E114 01.515 Firefly left 100
Miri 375 01-Jan-11 20:51:18 N4 25.739 E114 01.498 Firefly Left 100

Adong 376 01-Jan-11 20:56:16 N4 25.558 E114 01.582 Firefly Left 100
Adong 378 01-Jan-11 20:58:51 N4 25.639 E114 01.640 Firefly Left 100 high
Adong 379 01-Jan-11 21:01:22 N4 25.739 E114 01.684 Firefly Left 100
Adong 380 01-Jan-11 21:02:11 N4 25.758 E114 01.711 Firefly Right 100
Adong 381 01-Jan-11 21:03:18 N4 25.776 E114 01.751 Firefly Right 50
Adong 382 01-Jan-11 21:04:40 N4 25.830 E114 01.751 Firefly Left 50
Adong 386 01-Jan-11 21:14:55 N4 26.026 E114 01.748 Netline for catching pigeon
Adong 387 01-Jan-11 21:17:10 N4 26.003 E114 01.850 Firefly Right 50
Adong 388 01-Jan-11 21:17:39 N4 25.991 E114 01.868 Firefly Right 50
Adong 389 01-Jan-11 21:18:48 N4 25.959 E114 01.912 Firefly Left 50
Adong 390 01-Jan-11 21:19:17 N4 25.945 E114 01.929 Firefly Right 50
Adong 391 01-Jan-11 21:20:16 N4 25.919 E114 01.970 Firefly Left 100 big tree
Adong 392 01-Jan-11 21:22:58 N4 25.862 E114 02.079 Firefly Right 50
Adong 395 01-Jan-11 21:27:04 N4 26.027 E114 02.112 Firefly Left 100
Maloi 399 01-Jan-11 22:37:53 N4 24.194 E114 02.940 One sample escaped
Maloi 400 01-Jan-11 22:38:02 N4 24.187 E114 02.942 Firefly Right 50

Article by Musa Musbah and Nazeri Abghani;
Tracks by Musa Musbah;
Pictures by Sara Wong (reason why she's not in the picture!)