Staff View: Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count

Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count

Background Over the past 50 years, Southeast Asia has suffered the greatest losses of biodiversity of any tropical region in the world. Malaysia is a biodiversity hotspot in the heart of Southeast Asia with roughly the same number of mammal species, three times the number of butterfly species, but o...

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Main Authors:	Wilson, J.J., Jisming-See, S.W., Brandon-Mong, G.J., Lim, A.H., Lim, V.C., Lee, P.S., Sing, K.W.
Format:	Article
Published:	Pensoft Publishers 2015
Subjects:	Q Science (General) QH Natural history
Online Access:	http://eprints.um.edu.my/19465/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e7159
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id	my.um.eprints.19465
record_format	eprints
spelling	my.um.eprints.194652018-09-28T06:10:09Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/19465/ Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count Wilson, J.J. Jisming-See, S.W. Brandon-Mong, G.J. Lim, A.H. Lim, V.C. Lee, P.S. Sing, K.W. Q Science (General) QH Natural history Background Over the past 50 years, Southeast Asia has suffered the greatest losses of biodiversity of any tropical region in the world. Malaysia is a biodiversity hotspot in the heart of Southeast Asia with roughly the same number of mammal species, three times the number of butterfly species, but only 4% of the land area of Australia. Consequently, in Malaysia, there is an urgent need for biodiversity monitoring and also public engagement with wildlife to raise awareness of biodiversity loss. Citizen science is "on the rise" globally and can make valuable contributions to long-term biodiversity monitoring, but perhaps more importantly, involving the general public in science projects can raise public awareness and promote engagement. Butterflies are often the focus of citizen science projects due to their charisma and familiarity and are particularly valuable "ambassadors" of biodiversity conservation for public outreach. New information Here we present the data from our citizen science project, the first "Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count". Participants were asked to go outdoors on June 6, 2015, and (nonlethally) sample butterfly legs for species identification through DNA barcoding. Fifty-seven citizens responded to our adverts and registered to take part in the butterfly count with many registering on behalf of groups. Collectively the participants sampled 220 butterfly legs from 26 mostly urban and suburban sampling localities. These included our university campus, a highschool, several public parks and private residences. On the basis of 192 usable DNA barcodes, 43 species were sampled by the participants. The most sampled species was Appias olferna, followed by Junonia orithya and Zizina otis. Twenty-two species were only sampled once, five were only sampled twice, and four were only sampled three times. Three DNA barcodes could not be assigned species names. The sampled butterflies revealed that widely distributed, cosmopolitan species, often those recently arrived to the peninsula or with documented "invasive" potential, dominated the habitat types sampled by the participants. Data from this first Butterfly Count helps establish a baseline from which we can monitor the patterns and changes in butterfly communities in Peninsular Malaysia. Pensoft Publishers 2015 Article PeerReviewed Wilson, J.J. and Jisming-See, S.W. and Brandon-Mong, G.J. and Lim, A.H. and Lim, V.C. and Lee, P.S. and Sing, K.W. (2015) Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count. Biodiversity Data Journal, 3. e7159. ISSN 1314-2828 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e7159 doi:10.3897/BDJ.3.e7159
institution	Universiti Malaya
building	UM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaya
content_source	UM Research Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.um.edu.my/
topic	Q Science (General) QH Natural history
spellingShingle	Q Science (General) QH Natural history Wilson, J.J. Jisming-See, S.W. Brandon-Mong, G.J. Lim, A.H. Lim, V.C. Lee, P.S. Sing, K.W. Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count
description	Background Over the past 50 years, Southeast Asia has suffered the greatest losses of biodiversity of any tropical region in the world. Malaysia is a biodiversity hotspot in the heart of Southeast Asia with roughly the same number of mammal species, three times the number of butterfly species, but only 4% of the land area of Australia. Consequently, in Malaysia, there is an urgent need for biodiversity monitoring and also public engagement with wildlife to raise awareness of biodiversity loss. Citizen science is "on the rise" globally and can make valuable contributions to long-term biodiversity monitoring, but perhaps more importantly, involving the general public in science projects can raise public awareness and promote engagement. Butterflies are often the focus of citizen science projects due to their charisma and familiarity and are particularly valuable "ambassadors" of biodiversity conservation for public outreach. New information Here we present the data from our citizen science project, the first "Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count". Participants were asked to go outdoors on June 6, 2015, and (nonlethally) sample butterfly legs for species identification through DNA barcoding. Fifty-seven citizens responded to our adverts and registered to take part in the butterfly count with many registering on behalf of groups. Collectively the participants sampled 220 butterfly legs from 26 mostly urban and suburban sampling localities. These included our university campus, a highschool, several public parks and private residences. On the basis of 192 usable DNA barcodes, 43 species were sampled by the participants. The most sampled species was Appias olferna, followed by Junonia orithya and Zizina otis. Twenty-two species were only sampled once, five were only sampled twice, and four were only sampled three times. Three DNA barcodes could not be assigned species names. The sampled butterflies revealed that widely distributed, cosmopolitan species, often those recently arrived to the peninsula or with documented "invasive" potential, dominated the habitat types sampled by the participants. Data from this first Butterfly Count helps establish a baseline from which we can monitor the patterns and changes in butterfly communities in Peninsular Malaysia.
format	Article
author	Wilson, J.J. Jisming-See, S.W. Brandon-Mong, G.J. Lim, A.H. Lim, V.C. Lee, P.S. Sing, K.W.
author_facet	Wilson, J.J. Jisming-See, S.W. Brandon-Mong, G.J. Lim, A.H. Lim, V.C. Lee, P.S. Sing, K.W.
author_sort	Wilson, J.J.
title	Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count
title_short	Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count
title_full	Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count
title_fullStr	Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count
title_full_unstemmed	Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count
title_sort	citizen science: the first peninsular malaysia butterfly count
publisher	Pensoft Publishers
publishDate	2015
url	http://eprints.um.edu.my/19465/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e7159
_version_	1643690996442071040
score	13.211869

Citizen Science: The First Peninsular Malaysia Butterfly Count

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