PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

Insects are the most abundant animals on earth and two-thirds of these insects inhabit the tropical rain forests. In Peninsular Malaysia, majority of these insects occupy the lowland forests. These forests provide habitats for thousands insect species that are functionally important to the forest ecosystems. In recent years, however, the rates of deforestation in the lowland forests are rather alarming. The destruction of natural habitats and their conversion to other uses pose the single greatest threat to insect communities in the forests. In view of the changing ecosystem of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve and its surrounding, a study on the diversity of ground-dwelling selected insect communities in the forest was conducted. Heretofore, very few information was available on insects of the forest except those of Maeto et al. 1995 and Sajap et al. 1997.