The interaction between the two whip-scorpions featured herein appears to be mating behaviour, whereby the male (the darker individual at the rear) was probably in the process of transferring his sperm sac to the female’s genital opening on her ventrum. Although not venomous, an alarmed whip-scorpion may spray an aerosol of irritating fluid that contains acetic acid from the base of its tail at its molester (Court & Wang, 2011).

Opinions and declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

Opinions and declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

Opinions and declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

Well-known for its high elevation areas, Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Malaysia, also protects lowland areas that have received little ornithological attention. Here we describe the avian community at Serinsim Substation, an area of mixed lowland rainforest habitats within the park. We present observations from Serinsim, including an annotated list of the 202 species recorded, and measurements of mist-netted individuals. These observations derive from two expeditions: one in 2004 and one in 2014. Although parts of Serinsim’s forests are recovering from forest fires and historic, low-intensity logging, they are a valuable habitat for many lowland rainforest bird species, including uncommon species such as chestnut-necklaced partridge, fulvous-chested jungle-flycatcher, and chestnut-capped thrush. The diversity of birds at Serinsim highlights the importance of preserving degraded tropical forest for conservation. Our observations serve as a valuable baseline assessment of the avifauna in this region, which is particularly important in this era of rapid environmental destruction and land-use change.

Well-known for its high elevation areas, Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Malaysia, also protects lowland areas that have received little ornithological attention. Here we describe the avian community at Serinsim Substation, an area of mixed lowland rainforest habitats within the park. We present observations from Serinsim, including an annotated list of the 202 species recorded, and measurements of mist-netted individuals. These observations derive from two expeditions: one in 2004 and one in 2014. Although parts of Serinsim’s forests are recovering from forest fires and historic, low-intensity logging, they are a valuable habitat for many lowland rainforest bird species, including uncommon species such as chestnut-necklaced partridge, fulvous-chested jungle-flycatcher, and chestnut-capped thrush. The diversity of birds at Serinsim highlights the importance of preserving degraded tropical forest for conservation. Our observations serve as a valuable baseline assessment of the avifauna in this region, which is particularly important in this era of rapid environmental destruction and land-use change

The Delacour’s langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) is a critically endangered and endemic primate that inhabits a small region in North Vietnam. While the main threats to the langurs include illegal hunting and habitat destruction, the potential impacts of climate change on this species have never been assessed. In this study, we used Maxent, a species distribution modelling approach that has been shown to be suited for rare species, to assess the effects of climate change on the distribution of the Delacour’s langur in different future scenarios. We constructed an optimally tuned model to predict climatically suitable habitat for T. delacouri in current conditions, then projected the models to three future periods, 2041–2060, 2061–2080, and 2081–2100 using data from three general circulation models. Our models showed high predictive performance and successfully predicted the current known range, but also showed areas of overprediction that may reflect a part of the langur’s ecology. Our results estimated an overall loss in total suitable habitat, with an average value of approximately -26.97% in the 2041–2060 period, -29.81% in the 2061–2080 period, and -15.48% in the 2081–2100 period, compared to the current predicted range, but they also predicted the currently important Van Long-Kim Bang region as suitable across all future scenarios. We suggest that some of the predicted climatically suitable areas, including Van Long, Kim Bang, Lac Thuy, and Cuc Phuong, may be crucial for future conservation and population re-establishment/re-introduction activities of the Delacour’s langur.

The Wakatobi Islands are an archipelago of deep-sea islands lying off the south-east peninsula of Sulawesi. Despite being recognised as an Important Bird Area, the avifauna of these islands has long been neglected. While relatively extensive surveys have been carried out on nearby Buton Island (the largest satellite of South-east Sulawesi), the avifauna of the Wakatobi Islands went unstudied for nearly a century following the expedition of Heinrich Kühn in 1901–1902. Between 1999–2019 ornithologists visited nine of the archipelago’s islands on eight expeditions, seeking to carry out a modern assessment of the islands’ avifauna and re-evaluate the taxonomy of the avifauna. These expeditions combined transect surveys and mist netting. These formal surveys were targeted at small passerines, the focus of the taxonomic work, however all birds encountered were recorded allowing for a broad qualitative assessment of the avifaunal communities inhabiting the islands. In total, 100 bird species were recorded, of which 12 are Wallacean endemics, six are classified as Near Threatened and one as Critically Endangered. Here we present the species recorded during this study and review the historical literature to provide an inventory of the avifauna of the Wakatobi Islands. In addition, we review the taxonomy of Wakatobi populations including recent developments of note, highlighting potentially underappreciated endemism, and provide some information on relative abundance of bird species present