Species diversity of millipede in Lata Keding, Jeli, Kelantan

Species diversity is one of the most fundamental aspects of biodiversity. However, there are many ways to think about it and ever more ways to measure it. The most basic idea is that of species richness, which is simply a count of the number of species inhabiting a given area or habitat. Millipedes are attracted to dark, cool, moist environments that are rich in organic matter such as compost piles, heavily mulched shrub or flower beds, rotting logs, or the soil under logs and stones. They usually go unnoticed because they live in these relatively hidden habitats. To have a real idea on the status of millipedes in protected areas of Lata Keding, this study was initiated with the objective to investigate the species diversity of millipedes in Lata Keding and to produce a checklist of millipedes in Lata Keding. Lata Keding was chosen as the research area because it is a new developed recreational area and leisure location with enticing natural beauty. Surveys of millipede were conducted at 6 location using pitfall trap, quadrat sampling and active searching and were conducted in May 2022. Nine millipedes were obtained, all of them belonged to the two species and two family, Archispirostreptus gigas and Trigoniulus corallinus. The Archispirostreptus gigas is the most abundance species in Lata Keding. Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index showed low species diversity of millipede with H’= 0.5297, low millipede species richness in Margalef’s Index with DMG = 0.45 and low evenness in Pielou’s Evenness Index with J’= 0.76 at Lata keding, Jeli, Kelantan. Our findings imply that active searching has a lot of potential as a supplement to other methods for assessing diversity of millipede and variety in Lata Keding, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The conclusion is that the diversity and abundance of millipede species at Lata Keding, Jeli, Kelantan are low due to recreation area development and visitors. The recreation area known as Lalang's has developed, causing millipedes to be unable to live there due to habitat change.