Ting Hui Ng

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) | ums

Tropical freshwater invertebrate species are becoming extinct without being described, and effective conservation is hampered by a lack of taxonomic and distribution data. DNA metabarcoding is a promising tool for rapid biodiversity assessments that has never been applied to tropical freshwater invertebrates across large spatial and taxonomic scale...

The Vermetidae is a family of sessile marine gastropods whose members are difficult to identify accurately, but one species, Eualetes tulipa is widely documented as an introduced species globally. In Asia, there is only one known record of this species from India to date. We report the presence of E. tulipa in Singapore based on DNA barcoding. This...

This chapter focuses on changes due to anthropogenic activities, invasive fish species and changes in biodiversity in freshwater lakes and rivers in South East Asia. SE Asia's fresh waters are expected to be under increasing pressure from the region's rapidly growing human population. This will likely be exacerbated by the synergy between various a...

The Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia is a crucial freshwater biodiversity hotspot and supports one of the world's largest inland fisheries. Within the Tonle Sap basin, freshwater molluscs provide vital ecosystem services and are among the fauna targetted for commercial harvesting. Despite their importance, freshwater molluscs of the Tonle Sap basin remai...

Ampullariidae include the largest of all freshwater snails and are of ecological, evolutionary and anthropogenic importance in Southeast Asia (SEA). Native ampullariids belonging to the genus Pila face various threats but are understudied, with their species taxonomy being confused and data on their distributions being scarce. We provide a comprehe...

Prior to this study, few collections and records were made of the land snails in Cambodia and the historical taxa had never been reviewed. Herein a report on the land snail diversity based on specimens collected recently from karstic and non-karstic areas in southern Cambodia is provided. This checklist presents 36 species of land snails (two Nerit...

This book contains topics on the role of climatic factors on the epidemiology, prevalence, distribution, prevention and control of fish diseases. The 25 chapters that are divided into three main parts that discuss freshwater ecosystems and biological sequestrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide; microbial diseases (viral, bacterial and fungal infec...

Four decades after its publication, Rolf A.M. Brandt’s 1974 monograph on the non-marine molluscs of Thailand remains the main authority on freshwater and estuarine species for Southeast Asia and includes up to 165 new species of snails and bivalves described by Brandt and colleagues in the same book and preceding publications. All the holotypes are...

Southeast Asian apple snails, Pila spp., have been declining since the introduction of globally invasive, confamilial South American Pomacea spp., yet Pila ecology remains poorly studied, with most occurrence records unconfirmed. Pila scutata, a previously widespread species, presumed native to the Malay peninsula and assessed as Least Concern in t...

Introduced freshwater gastropods in the Indo-Burmese region may be under-documented owing to a lack of research attention. For the first time, we report on the widespread establishment of the globally invasive freshwater snail Physa acuta (Physidae) in Thailand and Laos, including decades old records that had previously been misidentified as Campto...

Sabah, a Malaysian state at the northeastern tip of Borneo, is situated in one of the Earth's biodiversity hotspots yet its freshwater gastropod diversity remains poorly known. An annotated checklist of the freshwater gastropods is presented, based on specimens deposited in the BORNEENSIS collection of the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conserv...

Collection data, image links and distribution data for freshwater snails of Sabah deposited in the BORNEENSIS collection, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

A spreadsheet of collection and distribution data for freshwater snails of Sabah deposited in the BORNEENSIS collection, Universiti Malaysia Sabah

The ornamental pet trade is often considered a key culprit for conservation problems such as the introduction of invasive species (including infectious diseases) and overharvesting of rare species. Here, we present the first assessment of the biodiversity of freshwater molluscs in the ornamental pet trade in Singapore, one of the most important glo...

Sources of ornamental freshwater molluscs (local ornamental pet retail shops and major ornamental exporters) (DOCX)

GenBank and BOLD Accession Numbers for COI and 16S sequences of freshwater molluscs of the ornamental pet trade. (DOCX)

The apple snails of the genus Pila (Ampullariidae) are the largest freshwater gastropods in Southeast Asia (SEA), and include some of the earliest taxa described from the region; Linnaeus described Pila ampullacea in 1758. Other Pila species have been described from SEA since the 1800s, but their taxonomy remains confused, obscuring the true distri...

Anentome helena (von dem Busch in Philippi, 1847) is known among aquarium enthusiasts as the “assassin snail”, and is usually kept to prey on other snail species that are considered pests in home aquaria. There have been concerns that, given its prevalence in the ornamental pet trade, it is only a matter of time before this predator is introduced t...

Anthropogenic removal of natural dispersal barriers and modification of natural habitats have contributed to the spread of non-native species. Potential invaders that are cryptic in appearance and/or behaviour are particularly troublesome as this confounds efforts to detect or manage incipient invasions. Here we report one such invader, the Florida...

The freshwater snail identified as Physastra sumatrana has been recorded in Singapore since the late 1980's. It is distributed throughout the island and commonly associated with ornamental aquatic plants. Although the species has previously been considered by some to be native to Singapore, its origin is currently categorised as unknown. Morphologi...

A preliminary checklist of freshwater Gastropoda from Brunei is reported.

The freshwater snails of the family Ampullariidae in Singapore are reviewed. This family is represented in Singapore by Pila ampullacea, Pila scutata, and the introduced Pomacea canaliculata and Pomacea maculata. Pila scutata and Pomacea canaliculata were once the only known Ampullariidae species in Singapore. Here, we discuss in further detail the...

A native ampullariid found in Singapore has been recorded as both Pila conica (Wood, 1828) and Pila scutata (Mousson, 1848). Both names are generally accepted to be synonyms, but the nomenclature remains confused, with authors generally preferring one over the other. To clarify the confusion, the history of the names is presented to show that Pila...

Pila scutata was the largest freshwater snail found in Singapore before the arrival of the introduced Pomacea canaliculata in the late 1980s. Its population appears to have declined over the past two decades, seemingly coinciding with the spread of Pomacea. The main aim of this article is to assess the status of Pila scutata in Singapore. Its past...

The statuses of the non-indigenous frogs in Singapore are reviewed. Out of the 28 species of anurans known in Singapore, four are non-indigenous: Hylarana guentheri (Boulenger), Kaloula pulchra Gray, Lithobates catesbeianus (Shaw), and Microhyla fissipes Boulenger. The introduction pathways of the frogs are discussed, along with their status, distr...

1. Identifying the ecological and life-history correlates of local extinction may elucidate mechanisms by which species traits and the environment interact to result in extinctions, and will help to predict and target extinction-prone species for inclusion in conservation programmes. Freshwater habitats are known to be highly threatened in Southeas...

Sixteen species of introduced or alien aquatic amphibians and reptiles have been recorded from Singapore's Public Utilities Board reservoirs. Their presence in the wild state is largely due to members of the public abandoning their pets, or releasing animals to gain spiritual merit (fang sheng). The ban imposed by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Autho...

Etroplus suratensis, a southern Asian cichlid, has established populations in Singapore. The fish, which was first collected in 1995, was probably introduced via the aquarium trade or through the Johor River in Malaysia. The growth, feeding and reproductive characteristics were found to follow its ecology in its native range in southern Asia, and i...

Southeast Asia has the highest rate of deforestation among all tropical regions in the world. Depending on the number of undiscovered species not yet known to science, a sizeable proportion of species may have gone extinct or will go extinct in the future without record. We compiled species datasets for eight taxa, each consisting of a list of nati...