CFZ Firefly Survey Mukah River

The winding Sg Mukah.

Nighttime Assessment of Fireflies at Sg Mukah
26th Feb 2010

Observers :
Musa, Anura, Nazeri(MNS MirI) , Hasnaliza, Duffy (SFC Mukah), Tahar Mustafa, Zulkipli Zawawi (boatman).


1 km plank walk in magenta and 8.96 km river track.

Jety/Berth Location: Mukah River Jetty


Side View Pteroptyx Valida. One division of the graph paper is 2mm.



Male light organ indicating P. Valida, apices of the elytra strongly deflexed and the terminal abdominal sternite strongly trilobed or trisinuatetake is typical of Pteroptyx specie. One division of the graph paper is 2mm. Caught at 20:45 N2 53 48.6 E112 07 54.3




Top View of Pteroptyx Valida. One division of the graph paper is 2mm.

We flew to Mukah 25th Feb to take part in the Sarawak Waterbirds Survey covering the Mukah sectors that weekend. We grabbed the opportunity to conduct CFZ for Sg Mukah on the 26th evening.

That Friday after a short walkabout around town, we took a boat across the river to checkout the fireflies amongs't the mangrove alongside the river walking along the plankwalk.


Crossing the Sg Mukah to get to the mangrove plankwalk on the otherside, each crossing costs 0.50cents but boat services ends at 6.30pm. The only way to get back is either by car or charter the same boat.

We walked along the plank towards the estuary and walked back after sunset. The entire area is lined up with matured berembang trees. We were hopeful of seeing fireflies sooner or later as we've been told by locals that they were plenty around after dark. There were several macaques, many mudskippers, Collared Kingfisher and small fries under the plankwalk.

As the dark started to engulf us, we walked slowly back along the plankwalk. We did not see any fireflies all along the walk back to the jetty. One explanation could be the human presence in the area, but we couldn't be sure. Sg Raan in Miri exhibited a healthy population rather close amongst human settlement; the same for Sg Miri near the Lutong segments. Our boatman, Aziz arrived promptly at 8.30pm to take us back across the river to town.

The next day we joined Rose and Daniel for the SWS. Liza from SFC Mukah was very kind to offer us the use of her car for the survey after our own rental car failed to appear at the promised time. We traversed the beaches along the coast but broke off early from the team to get some rest and prepare for our CFZ, planned to start 6.30pm the same day.

At the jetty, we were joined by Liza and Duffy from SFC Mukah office.

At 6:30 we started our survey slowly just to wait for the dark. We stopped at an area where the egret roosted. More than 500 mixed flock of egrets consisting of Cattle Egret, Intermidiate Egret, Little Egret and Great Egret. We saw them again on our return trip from the CFZ, it was too dark to get an approximate figure perhaps well beyond 500 egrets by then.

We started our survey by taking reading for water, air temperature, salinity and pH. We then slowly ride upriver. The early parts of the river is lit by all sorts of structures : from human habitation, swiftlets house, factories and quays. These are spotlighted and at some places were so bright that it's nearly impossible to see anything. Finally at 7:15pm, we noted one firefly.

Subsequenly we saw more trees having fireflies. The fireflies were displaying very high in the trees. Observations were made difficult by presence of bright starry skyline as well as some human habitation just beyond the trees. Light pollution from nearby structures in some areas didn't help our predicament.

With difficulty we managed to capture 2 male samples. Preliminary assessment tended to suggest that it is of the species Pteroptyx Valida due to the large size. It was only later when at home under a microscope that the samples were confirmed Pteroptyx Valida E. Olivier.

We concluded our survey at 09.50pm.

Field work
START Time: 18:18
Field work FINISH Time: 21:15

PHYSICAL CONDITION:

a. MoonPhase : New moon
80% cloud covered sky.

b. Weather: windy

A digital thermometer reading every minutes and giving an average

readings of the whole trip.
Minimum Average Relative Humidity: 84%
Minimum Average Air temperature 26.6 ° C
Minimum Average water temperature 25.0 ° C

Maximum Average Relative Humidity: 85%
Maximum Average Air temperature 28.9 ° C
Maximum Average water temperature 27.5 ° C


Water pH : 5 at the begining of the trip and 4 at the end of the

trip. Two readings taken at the end to confirm the reading.

Specific gravity: Both reading at the start point and end is 1.000


c. River Condition Current: Slow going down tide, slightly Whitish

sediment river.

Boat used: Mercury 40 hp.
Survey Average Speed 6.0 Km/hr.
Tide: going up



WPT Time Co-ordinate Fauna Fauna Estimated Number
467 18:25 N2 53 46.0 E112 05 54.7 Egrets 1000
468 19:15 N2 54 23.4 E112 06 05.9 Right 5
469 19:19 N2 54 27.0 E112 06 12.6 Right 1
470 19:19 N2 54 26.9 E112 06 13.4 Right 10
472 19:23 N2 54 20.4 E112 06 20.2 Right 1
474 19:31 N2 53 58.0 E112 06 28.2 Left 10
475 19:38 N2 53 39.4 E112 06 45.9 Left 1
476 19:40 N2 53 38.4 E112 06 51.5 Left 4
477 19:40 N2 53 38.7 E112 06 52.1 Left 10
478 19:42 N2 53 41.9 E112 06 54.4 Left 50
479 19:44 N2 53 47.6 E112 06 56.2 Right 100
480 19:45 N2 53 49.9 E112 06 55.7 Right 50
481 19:45 N2 53 51.1 E112 06 55.3 Right 50
482 19:45 N2 53 52.3 E112 06 54.9 Right 50
483 19:46 N2 53 54.9 E112 06 54.4 Right 50
484 19:46 N2 53 55.1 E112 06 54.4 Right 50
485 19:47 N2 53 57.5 E112 06 55.3 Right 50
486 19:48 N2 53 58.3 E112 06 56.1 Right 100
487 19:48 N2 53 58.7 E112 06 56.7 Right 100
488 19:49 N2 53 59.1 E112 06 57.5 Right 50
489 19:49 N2 53 59.3 E112 06 58.3 Right 100
490 19:50 N2 53 59.4 E112 06 59.5 Right 50
491 19:50 N2 53 59.5 E112 07 00.4 Right 50
492 19:53 N2 53 58.4 E112 07 08.2 Left 5
493 19:54 N2 53 56.9 E112 07 10.5 Left 10
494 19:56 N2 53 52.5 E112 07 15.8 Left 20
495 19:57 N2 53 52.0 E112 07 16.8 Left 10
496 19:58 N2 53 51.3 E112 07 18.4 Left 20
497 19:59 N2 53 50.9 E112 07 20.3 Left 20
498 19:59 N2 53 50.8 E112 07 21.3 Left 20
499 20:00 N2 53 50.7 E112 07 22.0 Left 50
500 20:00 N2 53 50.6 E112 07 22.8 Left 50
501 20:01 N2 53 50.7 E112 07 24.4 Left 100
502 20:02 N2 53 51.4 E112 07 27.0 Left 20
503 20:03 N2 53 52.1 E112 07 28.6 Left 20
504 20:05 N2 53 54.3 E112 07 31.8 Left 20
505 20:06 N2 53 55.2 E112 07 33.3 Left 50
506 20:07 N2 53 56.3 E112 07 35.0 Right 10
507 20:07 N2 53 56.6 E112 07 36.2 Right 50
508 20:08 N2 53 57.0 E112 07 37.0 Right 20
509 20:08 N2 53 57.4 E112 07 38.1 Right 50
510 20:08 N2 53 57.6 E112 07 38.4 Right 100
511 20:09 N2 53 58.3 E112 07 38.9 Left 100
512 20:10 N2 53 59.8 E112 07 40.7 Left 30
513 20:10 N2 54 00.3 E112 07 41.6 Left 20
514 20:11 N2 54 00.7 E112 07 42.5 Right 30
515 20:11 N2 54 00.4 E112 07 43.5 Right 30
516 20:12 N2 54 00.7 E112 07 44.5 Right 30
517 20:13 N2 54 01.4 E112 07 46.5 Left 50
518 20:13 N2 54 01.7 E112 07 47.6 Right 100
519 20:15 N2 54 02.0 E112 07 51.1 Left 50
520 20:16 N2 54 02.2 E112 07 54.9 Left 50
521 20:17 N2 54 02.2 E112 07 55.6 Right 50
522 20:18 N2 54 02.4 E112 08 00.5 Left 50
523 20:19 N2 54 02.2 E112 08 01.1 Right 50
524 20:19 N2 54 02.0 E112 08 01.9 Right 50
525 20:19 N2 54 01.8 E112 08 02.5 Right 50
526 20:21 N2 54 00.6 E112 08 06.5 GGG 50 EACH
527 20:21 N2 54 00.2 E112 08 07.1 Right 50
528 20:21 N2 53 59.7 E112 08 07.8 Right 50
529 20:22 N2 53 59.1 E112 08 09.0 Left 30
530 20:22 N2 53 58.6 E112 08 09.6 Left 50
531 20:23 N2 53 57.9 E112 08 10.1 Left 50
531 20:23 N2 53 57.7 E112 08 10.2 Left 50
533 20:23 N2 53 56.9 E112 08 10.7 Right 50
534 20:24 N2 53 55.7 E112 08 11.3 Right 50
535 20:24 N2 53 54.7 E112 08 11.6 GGG 50 EACH
536 20:26 N2 53 50.3 E112 08 11.8 Right 100
537 20:27 N2 53 49.2 E112 08 10.9 Right 150
538 20:28 N2 53 47.3 E112 08 08.7 Right 50
539 20:29 N2 53 46.7 E112 08 07.4 Right 100
540 20:30 N2 53 46.4 E112 08 06.2 Left 100
541 20:31 N2 53 44.9 E112 08 04.2 Right 100
542 20:36 N2 53 47.3 E112 07 57.8 Left 50
543 20:38 N2 53 48.2 E112 07 56.8 Right 250
544 20:39 N2 53 48.2 E112 07 55.8 Right 100
545 20:39 N2 53 48.1 E112 07 54.6 Right 50
546 20:39 N2 53 48.0 E112 07 54.1 Right 50
547 20:39 N2 53 47.9 E112 07 53.4 Right 50
548 20:44 N2 53 48.8 E112 07 54.0 Right 50
549 20:45 N2 53 48.6 E112 07 54.3 Right 50
550 20:46 N2 53 48.0 E112 07 52.9 Right 50
551 20:48 N2 53 45.8 E112 07 50.4 Left 100
552 20:48 N2 53 44.6 E112 07 49.7 Right 50
553 20:53 N2 53 41.7 E112 07 47.0 Right 50
554 20:54 N2 53 39.4 E112 07 45.9 Left 20
555 20:55 N2 53 37.6 E112 07 44.8 Right 50
556 20:56 N2 53 35.6 E112 07 44.2 Left 50
557 20:57 N2 53 32.5 E112 07 43.6 Left 100
558 20:57 N2 53 29.5 E112 07 43.2 Left 50
559 20:58 N2 53 27.2 E112 07 43.0 Left 150
560 20:59 N2 53 24.8 E112 07 42.8 Left 50
561 20:59 N2 53 23.2 E112 07 42.8 Left 50
562 20:59 N2 53 22.3 E112 07 42.9 Left 100
563 21:00 N2 53 20.3 E112 07 43.1 Left 150



Egrets arriving to roost for the nite, initial count of 300 increases to 500 by the time the sun set.


Duffy and Liza at the front, Duffy as a spotter with his 20/20 vision and Liza busy as a recorder. Anura and Musa at the back.

We completed the 1st CFZ in the Mukah area, perhaps the southernmost reach of our CFZ Survey of Northern Sarawak. We were informed by Liza that there are many smaller rivers around Mukah that may harbor better irefly populations. Considering the fairly developed stages of the main Sg Mukah which might explain the less than favorable numbers along some stretches, it might be worthwhile checking out the smaller less developed tributaries for congregating fireflies on another more opportune visit. In most parts, inland area surrounding Mukah has been converted to oil palm plantations many years back, our chances are probably better on the smaller undisturbed sections of rivers closer to the coastal areas.


Write-up, maps and firefly images by Musa Musbah/MNS Miri
Editing and other images by Nazeri Abghani/MNS Miri

The 2nd MNS Firefly Survey and Monitoring Workshop

Firefly larva found near Miri.

The MNS Miri Branch together with MNS Conservation Division, would like to invite participants to the 2nd MNS Miri Firefly Survey and Monitoring Workshop to be held at Similajau National Park, Bintulu, Sarawak from 26-27th March 2011.

Venue : Similajau National Park, Bintulu
Date : 26th and 27th March 2011

Our main resource for the workshop will be Sonny Wong, Senior Conservation Officer, MNS Conservation Division and Dr Mahadimenakbar Mohamed Dawood, Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Conservation, University Malaysia Sabah. Musa Musbah, Project Executor for CFZ Survey Northern Sarawak will also be on hand to share his experiences to date with Sarawak fireflies.

Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses for the duration of the workshop, they will be provided materials and relevant group meals. Transport to and from fieldsites will be provided by the organisers.

MNS Miri Branch under the funding of the Congregating Firefly Zone Survey Northern Sarawak 2010 by MNS Merdeka Fund, is currently compiling a baseline data on congregating firefly zones (CFZ) of the mangrove lined rivers in Northern Sarawak.

The project started in August 2010 at the branch level and will continue until Jun 2011. The project aims to create a CFZ directory for Northern Sarawak which hopefully will eventually culminate in a number of candidate locations suitable as targets for conservation or rural eco-tourism development.

MNS Miri Branch welcomes contribution from other Branch members in East Malaysia, UNIMAS, UMS, government agencies as well as members of the public to help in the compilation of the CFZ in Northern Sarawak. It is also hoped that this work will be replicated to other regions in Sarawak as well as in Sabah. The directory will be made available to the respective State Governments for conservation of the firefly and the mangroves habitat or potential eco-tourism activities.

We hope to share the experiences and enthusiasm to date on the firefly survey and monitoring work in a two day classroom sessions and one evening fieldwork session.

At the conclusion of the workshop participants will have had good exposure about firefly conservation in Malaysia and several concrete ideas and steps to further improve the collective work in CFZ in Malaysia in general.

It is also our fervent hope that the sharing of experiences on methodology and practical learnings during the event will spur further activities in firefly survey and monitoring in Sabah and Sarawak.

Tentative timetable:-

Saturday:
1400-1700hrs Classroom Session
1700-2200hrs Survey Sg Similajau and Fieldtrip

Sunday:
0800-1200hrs Classroom Session
1200hrs Lunch
1300-1700hrs Classroom Session
1800hrs Fieldtrip (optional)

Please contact the organiser for further information:
Nazeri Abghani, MNS Miri Branch CFZ

nabghani@yahoo.com or

please call 085-453185/016-8542212

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