Microhabitat Utilization of Family Megophryidae in Sarawak.

Anurans are known to be the most diverse group of amphibians in the world with the most varied of the families being Megophryidae, the leaf litter frogs. This research focuses on the Family Megophryidae in terms of its microhabitat utilization and comparison of habitat preferences to determine if all the species in this family can actually be found among the leaf litter. Field techniques such as forest and stream transects were employed in the late evening till night while quadrats were done in the morning. Data was obtained by recording several parameters such as the substrate (S), vertical position (VP), horizontal position (HP), habitat vegetation (HV), snout-vent length (SVL), weight, tibia length (TL) and the water quality of streams nearest to where the frog individuals were found. The 97 individuals captured were analyzed using Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) to obtain sufficient graphs and statistical evidence which illustrates species such as Leptobrachella parva and Leptobrachium montanum as highly specialist frogs, whereby they show preferred microhabitat parameters in terms of habitat, substrate and vertical position, while others such as Megophrys nasuta, Leptobrachella mjobergi and Leptobrachium abbotti were found to occupy various types of microhabitats (generalist species) indicating that they can survive in a variety of conditions. Due to harsh weather conditions that may have hindered this research, it is recommended that in the near future this research be continued preferably during different weather seasons to strengthen the findings