Ecological Characteristics of Arboreal Crab Labuanium politum from Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary

Siti Akmar Khadijah, Ab Rahim and Akma Iddin, Masini and Nur Amirah, Mohamad Alwie (2024) Ecological Characteristics of Arboreal Crab Labuanium politum from Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary. In: Tanjung Datu National Park to Samunsam. Proceeding of Aquatic Science Colloquium 2019 (AQUAColl 2019) Experience Sharing in Aquatic Science Research V . UNIMAS Publisher, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, pp. 139-149. ISBN 978-967-0054-79-7

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Abstract

Labuanium politum (Family Sesarmidae) is an arboreal crab known to associate with nipa vegetation in mangrove ecosystem but some ecological characteristics of the species in Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary are unknown. Being a nipa-obligate species, the construction of Pan-Borneo Highway through the sanctuary might pose threat to the crab population. Yet, the dependency level of this crab towards its habitat intactness remain unknown. Therefore, this study aims to 1) determine the relationship between density of nipa forest and population of L. politum and 2) record the presence of parasite in samples obtained from six stations. Crab collections were done during daytime and standardised in two minutes per plot (three plots per station) along Samunsam River. A total of 42 individuals (male = 19, female = 23) were collected and the mean carapace width (CW) was 23.42 ± 7.04 mm for male and 24.01 ± 5.48 mm for female. Berried females were bigger with mean CW of 27.07 ± 3.09 mm. Present study also showed that density of L. politum was not related to the nipa forest density and the size for both sexes were not significantly different with forest density (Kruskal Wallis, p>0.05). Interestingly, a new record of bopyrid isopod Leidya distorta infestation was documented in one female crab with 2.38 % prevalence. Findings of this rapid survey provide useful ecological data that exclude the temporal effect which may not reflect the real impact of the highway project and other development that will occur in future. Thus, long term monitoring is needed in order to sustain the crab population inside the sanctuary.

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