The Flora of Wadi Wurayah National
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TRIBULUS Notes for Contributors TRIBULUS is the Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group and was launched in 1991. The Group, based in Abu Dhabi, was founded in 1976 and is the oldest environmental non-governmental organisation in the United Arab Emirates. It has three sister groups, the Al Ain ENHG, the Dubai Natural History Group and the Fujairah Natural History Group. Between 1976 and 1990, the Group published 42 issues of a thrice-yearly duplicated Bulletin. Copies of TRIBULUS and of the Bulletin are available on the website of the Al Ain ENHG, at www.enhg.org Between 1991 and 2006, TRIBULUS was published twice-yearly but from Volume 17 (2007), the number of pages has been increased and frequency has become annual, rather than bi-annual. The aim of the publication is to create and maintain in standard form a collection of recordings, articles and papers on topics related to the natural history, heritage, geology, palaeontology, archaeology and history of South-Eastern Arabia, with the focus on the United Arab Emirates and adjacent areas. Papers, short notes and other contributions are welcomed from both residents of the United Arab Emirates and others, but should not have previously been published elsewhere. Guidelines are set out below. Information contained in papers is as accurate as can be determined by the Editorial Board, in consultation with the members of the Advisory Panel and other referees, but opinion expressed are those of the authors alone. All manuscripts received are reviewed by Editorial Board members and appropriate Advisory Panel members and, where appropriate, are also submitted for blind peer review. Correspondence and enquiries should be sent to: The Editor TRIBULUS P.O. Box 3790, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Or by e-mail to: [email protected] Editorial Board: Advisory Panel: H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Patron Professor Graham Evans (Earth Sciences) Peter Hellyer, Managing Editor Professor Dan Potts (Archaeology) Dr. Brigitte Howarth Professor Jens Eriksen (Life Sciences Dr. Richard Perry Dr. Gary Brown (Flora) Dr. Stephen Lokier Professor Peter Magee (Archaeology) Gary R. Feulner Dr. Richard Hornby (Life Sciences) Submission of manuscripts Manuscripts should be submitted in electronic form. A short abstract may precede the paper, with the address(es) of the authors, including e-mail address, at the end. Photographs, line drawings and maps should be submitted, in electronic format, and should be of sufficiently high resolution to permit reproduction. References should give the author's name, with the date of publication in brackets, showing title, publisher and country of publication, in date order. For journal articles, conventional abbreviations of journal titles may be used. Scientific names should follow customary nomenclature in Latin while the common English names (if any) and local Arabic names (if available) should also be supplied. TRIBULUS Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group Volume 24 - 2016 Contents Editorial............................................................................................................................................................... 3 The Flora of Wadi Wurayah National Park, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates: An annotated checklist and selected observations on the flora of an extensive ultrabasic bedrock environment in the northern Hajar Mountains. by Gary R. Feulner ................................................................................................................................. 4 - 84 A Geological Excursion to Jebels Rawdah, Buhays and Faiyah by Graham Evans and Anthony Kirkham.............................................................................................. 85 - 92 New Evidence of the Quaternary History of Abu Dhabi: A Pleistocene Evaporite Deposit near Yas Island by Graham Evans and Anthony Kirkham.............................................................................................. 93 - 96 The exuviae of the Urothemistinae of the Arabian Peninsula including the first description of the exuvia and final instar larva of Urothemis thomasi Longfield 1932 (Odonata: Libellulidae) by David Chelmick, Richard Seidenbusch, Jean-Pierre Boudot and Christophe Brochard .................. 97 - 108 A record of the Great Eggfly Hypolimnas bolina (Linnaeus, 1758) from Masirah Island, Oman and a summary of previous records from Arabia by Victor Hitchings and Oscar Campbell................................................................................................ 109 - 114 Spiders of the United Arab Emirates: An Update (2016) by Binish Roobas and Gary Feulner....................................................................................................... 115 - 125 Five-striped Palm Squirrel, Funambulus pennantii (Wroughton, 1905) – a new addition to the UAE’s exotic fauna by Jacky Judas and Peter Hellyer........................................................................................................... 126 - 129 New Flowering Plant Species Records for the United Arab Emirates by Mohammad Shahid and N.K. Rao...................................................................................................... 130 - 135 Growing knowledge about the floral diversity of United Arab Emirates: new additions and conservation through seed banking by Sanjay Gairola,Tamer Mahmoud, Hatem Shabana and Ali El-Keblawy.......................................... 136 - 143 The Arabian waterscorpion (Insecta: Heteroptera: Nepidae) can fly by Peter J. Cowan and Elaine M. Cowan................................................................................................ 144 - 145 Call for UAE mammals data by Jacky Judas...................................................................................................................................... 146 Tribulus Volume 24 - 2016 Corporate Members of the ENHG: Production of Tribulus, and many other activities of the Emirates Natural History Group, including the grant programme of the Group’s Conservation Fund, would not be possible without the generous support of the Group’s Corporate Members, many of whom have provided consistent assistance over many years. The Editorial Board and the Group Committee acknowledge, with thanks, the invaluable support of the following companies and bodies, currently Corporate members of the Group, and all past Corporate sponsors without whom publication would be impossible: Corporate Sponsors: Bin Moosa & Daly Fugro Survey (Middle East) Ltd. British Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd. Montclair Ltd. Country Holidays Nautica Environmental Associates L.L.C. Elegant Resorts Park Hyatt We also acknowledge the support and encouragement of our Patron, H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development. Tribulus is published for members of the four Natural History Groups in the United Arab Emirates, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain and Fujairah, and is also available on subscription inside and outside the UAE. Subscription in the UAE & the Arabian Gulf states is Dh50 per year, including postage. Overseas details on request. Cover Illustrations: Front: A juvenile hawksbill turtle on Webb Rock, a reef off the coast of Abu Dhabi's Western Region. Picture by Veryan Pappin, Nautica Environmental Associates Back: An adult Egyptian nightjar (Caprimulgus aegyptius) at roost in Abu Dhabi, summer 2016. Breeding in the UAE was first confirmed in 2016. Picture by Dr. Richard Hornby, Nautica Environmental Associates. Published by the Emirates Natural History Group P.O. Box 3790, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Website: www.enhg.org/Abu Dhabi - Email address: [email protected] Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ENHGAD Designed by Ginny dela Fuente International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 1019 - 6919 Editorial This somewhat lengthy issue of Tribulus once of several other papers. David Chelnick et al. describe again commences with a detailed paper by one of our for the first time the exuvia (larva cases) of a rare most prolific, and most valued, contributors, Gary dragonfly, Urothemis thomasi, recently identified in the Feulner, who provides an extensive study of the flora Emirates. Peter and Elaine Cowan, from Oman, of Fujairah’s Wadi Wurayah protected area. While continue their investigations into the Arabian checklists of a particular category of fauna or flora waterscorpion, a species also found here, confirming covering the whole of the UAE (and, where that – contrary to previous studies – it can fly, while appropriate, of adjacent areas of Oman) are always the extent of published knowledge of the UAE’s flora of value, in terms of enhancing knowledge of the is expanded by the papers from Mohammad Shahid country’s overall biodiversity, it has long been our view and N.K. Rao and by Sanjay Gairola and colleagues. that there is also much to be gained from more With a broader geographical focus, Victor Hitchings detailed studies of specific geographical areas. A and Oscar Campbell report on the Arabian distribution focus on a designated reserve, such as Wadi of the Great Eggfly, with illuminating data on how a Wurayah, of course, helps both to underpin its status study of weather patterns can provide an explanation and to inform recommendations for further work. It is of unexpected occurrences of actively mobile species. to be hoped that further data on other aspects of this The weather, of course, isn’t the only way in which enormously important area will be made publicly species can spread beyond their normal