CHECKLIST OF THE FAMILY ACRIDIDAE MACLEAY, 1821 (ORTHOPTERA) BASED ON VOUCHER SPECIMENS OF MAJOR REPOSITORIES IN SARAWAK

Acrididae is a family of insects consisting of the short-horned grasshoppers and locusts. Currently, knowledge on the faunistic composition of family Acrididae in Sarawak is still scarce. This study aimed to determine the species composition and to provide a current checklist of acridid fauna in Sarawak, using voucher specimens from Insect Reference Collection of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UIRC), and Research, Development and Innovation Division (RDID) of Forest Department Sarawak. A total of 925 specimens of acridid were examined, representing 5 subfamilies, 17 genera and 22 species. Subfamily Catantopinae was recorded with the highest number of species (8 genera; 10 species), followed by Oedipodinae (4 genera; 4 species), Cyrtacanthacridinae (2 genera; 3 species), Oxyinae (2 genera; 3 species), and Acridinae (1 genus; 2 species). The most abundant species was Traulia azureipennis followed by Valanga nigricornis . The least abundant species were Coloracris coerulescens , Coloracris sp., Craneopsis olivacea , Perakia borneensis and Phalaca waterstradti , which is represented by a singleton. This study serves as a fundamental data which will aid future taxonomic and ecological studies on Acrididae in Malaysia, particularly Sarawak.