THE FOODWEB FROM WATER-FILLED TREEHOLES IN KUALA-BELALONG, BRUNEI

The animals inhabiting water-filled treeholes in lowland mixed diptero carp forest around the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre in Brunei w ere studied. A minimum of 20 species of animals were found over the 52 sites studied with individual hole faunas ranging from 2 to 8 species around an average of 4. These included one or more species of anurans , dytiscid beetles, odonates, culicids, chironomids, ceratopogonids, p horids, syrphids, oligochaetes and copepods. Of special note were the three species of odonate and two of frog larvae within these habitats. The foodweb that can be inferred from the occurrence of these organis ms was compared with those from other Old World tropical locations inc luding northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and Sulawesi. The Bruneian webs were exceptional in their richness of the larger saprophagous sp ecies possibly because the relatively aseasonal, perhumid climate of t he region provides a more energy rich and predictable environment than is found at the other locations.