ECOLOGY, DISTRIBUTION AND BEHAVIOUR OF ROVE BEETLE, Paederus fuscipes CURTIS (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) IN RELATION TO HUMAN SETTINGS MARYAM BINTI SUFIAN UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA 2018 ECOLOGY, DISTRIBUTION AND BEHAVIOUR OF ROVE BEETLE, Paederus fuscipes CURTIS (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) IN RELATION TO HUMAN SETTINGS by MARYAM BINTI SUFIAN Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Bismillah-ir-rahmaan-ir-raheem Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah for the strengths and His blessing in completing this thesis successfully. Special appreciation goes to my dearest supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Wan Fatma Zuharah for her valuable guidance, advice and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the thesis from the beginning until the final stage of my PhD. study. Without her support and counsel, I doubt that my thesis writing would go on smoothly. Not forgotten, my appreciation to my two co-supervisors, Associate Professor Dr. Nik Fadzly and Professor Amirul Al-Ashraf Abdullah. It was a great privilege and honour to work and study under their guidance. I would also like to thank the staff of Biological School for their precious time, patience and energy in helping my study, and sincere thanks to all my friends Sheyli, Ahbirami, Sumayyah, Rohaiyu, Yusoff, Andy, Shehnaz, Syafiqah, Khidhir, Atiqah, and Hanis. Thank you for the friendship and memories. I would like to express my gratitude towards my amazing family, especially to my beloved parents, papa and mama, for their encouragement, support, love, sacrifice and who always pray for me to do well in my study. Finally, to my husband, Fahad, thanks for your love, understanding and for being there for me always. To my younger sisters and brother, I am very lucky to have you all always by my side when I am down and I never felt left out in any situation. Not forgotten my late grandmother, Tok Ambra Charles. You’ll be in my heart. Always. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLE viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF PLATES xii ABSTRAK xiv ABSTRACT xvi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Diversity of Paederus 5 2.2 General description of Paederus fuscipes Curtis 6 2.2.1 Scientific classification 6 2.2.2 Morphology 6 2.2.3 Life cycle 10 2.3 Food and predatory behaviour 13 2.3.1 Functional response of prey-predator relationship 14 2.4 Rice field crop and association with Paederus 14 2.5 Rice pests as food source for Paederus 19 2.5.1 Green leafhopper (Nephotettix virescens Distant) 19 2.5.2 Brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stål) 21 2.5.3 Zigzag leafhopper (Recilia dorsalis Motschulsky) 22 2.6 Behaviour 23 iii 2.7 Insect vision 23 2.8 Flight activity based on abiotic factors 25 2.9 Importance of Paederus 27 2.9.1 Agriculture 27 2.9.2 Medical impact on human 28 CHAPTER THREE: GENERAL METHODOLOGY 3.1 Sampling site 33 3.2 Sampling methods 34 3.3 Maintenance method of P. fuscipes 36 CHAPTER FOUR: SCAVENGER OR PREDATOR: A STUDY ON MULTIFARIOUS ROLE OF ROVE BEETLE, Paederus fuscipes CURTIS (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) FEEDING BEHAVIOURS 4.1 Introduction 38 4.2 Materials and Methods 40 4.2.1 Collection site of P. fuscipes and prey species 40 4.2.2 Sampling methods 41 4.2.3 Maintenance method of P. fuscipes 42 4.2.4 Experimental designs 42 4.2.4(a) Functional response study 42 4.2.4(b) Preference of prey 44 4.2.4(c) Predator’s behaviour 47 4.3 Results 50 4.3.1 Functional response study 50 4.3.2 Preference of prey 53 iv 4.3.3 Predator’s behavior 57 4.3.3(a) Searching frequency behaviour of P. fuscipes on its 57 prey 4.3.3(b) Capturing behaviour of P. fuscipes on its prey 58 4.3.3(c) Feeding behaviour of P. fuscipes on its prey 59 4.4 Discussion 61 CHAPTER FIVE: SEASONAL ABUNDANCE AND FLIGHT ACTIVITY OF A RICE PEST PREDATOR, Paederus fuscipes CURTIS (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) 5.1 Introduction 66 5.2 Materials and Methods 68 5.2.1 Study site 68 5.2.2 Experimental design 68 5.2.3 Rice field phenology 68 5.2.4 Meteorological data 69 5.2.5 Statistical analysis 69 5.3 Results 71 5.3.1 Effects of rice cultivation phases and environmental 71 variables on insects’ abundance 5.3.2 Effects of rice cultivation phases and light trap distance on 73 insects' distribution 5.3.3 Influence of the environmental variables on insects' dispersal 75 time 5.4 Discussion 78 v CHAPTER SIX: DISPERSAL PATTERN OF THE ROVE BEETLE, Paederus fuscipes CURTIS IN AN ENDEMIC SUBURBAN AREA OF PENANG 6.1 Introduction 82 6.2 Materials and Methods 84 6.2.1 Study site 84 6.2.2 Experimental design 86 6.2.2(a) Effects of the light illuminance 86 6.2.2(b) Effects of the height of building floor level 88 6.2.3 Statistical analysis 89 6.3 Results 90 6.3.1 Effects of different light illuminances and height of building 90 floor level and association with rice cultivation phase 6.3.2 Effects of light illuminance and rice cultivation phases 90 6.3.3 Effects of different height of each floor level and rice 92 cultivation phases 6.3.4 Effects of light illuminance at a three storey apartment 97 6.4 Discussion 101 CHAPTER SEVEN: PHOTOTACTIC RESPONSE AND COLOUR PREFERENCES OF THE Paederus fuscipes CURTIS (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) 7.1 Introduction 108 7.2 Materials and Methods 109 7.2.1 Collection of P. fuscipes in the rice field 109 7.2.2 Maintenance method of P. fuscipes 109 7.2.3 Y-maze design 109 7.2.4 Paederus fuscipes attraction to different type of light sources 110 vi 7.2.5 Paederus fuscipes attraction to different coloured LED bulbs 112 7.2.6 Spectrographic Analysis 113 7.2.7 Statistical Analysis 113 7.3 Results 115 7.3.1 Paederus fuscipes attraction to light and no light (dark) 115 conditions 7.3.2 Paederus fuscipes attraction to fluorescent, LED, and 116 incandescent light sources 7.3.3 Paederus fuscipes attraction to white, blue, green and red LED 118 light sources 7.3.4 Light colour wavelength 121 7.4 Discussion 123 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 151 REFERENCES 158 APPENDICES LIST OF PRESENTATIONS LIST OF PUBLICATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.1 The average maximum number of alive and dead prey 52 consumed per day by P. fuscipes predator. Data were presented in mean ± SE (n = 10). Table 5.1 Total captures of P. fuscipes, dispersal time, and its associated 76 environmental variables according to rice cycles. Table 6.1 Effects of light illumination at the ground/land floor level and 91 rice cultivation phase on the dispersion of P. fuscipes beetles using two-way ANOVA. Table 6.2 Effects of three different light illumination at the ground/land 92 floor level and four rice stages on the mean number of collected P. fuscipes beetle Table 6.3 Effects of height of each floor level and rice cultivation phase 95 differences on the dispersion of P. fuscipes beetles during the main rice season using two-way ANOVA. Table 6.4 Effects of different height of each floor level and four rice 95 stages on the mean number of collected P. fuscipes beetle during the main rice season. Table 6.5 Effects of height of each floor levels and rice cultivation phase 96 differences on the dispersion of P. fuscipes beetles during the off rice season using two-way ANOVA. Table 6.6 Effects of different height of each floor levels and four rice 96 stages on the mean number of collected P. fuscipes beetle during the off rice season. Table 6.7 Effects of light illumination at different height of each floor 100 levels of a three storey high-rise apartment building on the dispersion of P. fuscipes beetles using two-way ANOVA. Table 7.1 Paederus fuscipes preferences toward three different types of 116 light sources (fluorescent, cool white LED, and incandescent) in binomial test experiment 1; a light and no light (dark) choice condition. Significant values are in bold. Table 7.2 Paederus fuscipes preferences toward three different types of 117 light sources (fluorescent, cool white LED, and incandescent) in binomial test experiment 2; a light and light choice tests. Significant value is in bold. Table 7.3 Paederus fuscipes preferences toward four different LED light 120 colours (blue, green, white, and red) in binomial test experiment 3. Significant values are in bold. viii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1 Electromagnetic spectrum of the visible light. 25 Figure 3.1 A schematic diagram of the experimental design (plan view). 36 A: housing areas; B and C: rice fields; 30 m, 55 m, 80 m and 105 m are the UV light traps that were placed biweekly for attracting beetles. Figure 4.1 The sampling site which is situated at Jalan Sejahtera Indah 40 (in red pin), Telok Air Tawar, mainland Penang, Malaysia. Figure 4.2 The diagram above show the design of functional response 43 experiments. Figure 4.3 The diagram above show the design of food preferences 46 experiment. Figure 4.4 The diagram above shows the design of predator behavior 49 experiment. Figure 4.5 Paederus fuscipes displayed the Type II (convex) functional 51 response model against alive and dead R. dorsalis species. Data were plotted by means of 95% confidence intervals.