This page was previously published at Life/Gallery/Insects.htm. It has been
moved into the Insects/ section, where it belongs, and the old address redirects
here.
The pristine tropical rainforests of Malaysia are among the world's richest in biodiversity. "Biodiversity" is one of the most used expressions in the biological sciences and among the general public today, and it is the richness of Sabah's flora and fauna that allows the state to excel in nature tourism.
Insects are the group that contributes most to that richness. More than a million insect species have been named worldwide, and as the exploration of Malaysian fauna advances that number keeps rising. The diversity of Sabah's insects is something to be proud of, and it has real potential in promoting nature tourism — entotourism, if the word is allowed.
For anyone interested, there is the butterfly farm at Poring Hot Springs, the insect exhibits at Gunung Alab Resort on the Kota Kinabalu–Tambunan highway, the Insect Museum of the Sepilok Forest Research Centre, and the Sabah Museum in Kota Kinabalu.
Stick insects are unique. They are usually slow-moving, relying on concealment rather than escape. The elongated body looks like a twig — a remarkable example of natural camouflage — and the resemblance is often enhanced by appropriate colours and postures. Some are spiny and look ferocious, such as Haaniella echinata, but they all feed on plants and are harmless. The best time to look for them is in the forest at night, preferably after an evening drizzle.
Sabah holds a world record in this group. The longest insect body ever recorded belongs to Chan's megastick, Phobaeticus chani, at 355 mm — a stick insect from the rainforests of Sabah, described in 2008, with the specimen now in the Natural History Museum in London. Longer animals exist if the outstretched legs are counted: that title is currently held by Phryganistria chinensis from China at 640 mm. But for the body alone, the record is Sabah's.
Field records of stick insects photographed in Sabah, each with its date, place and photograph, are on a separate page: Stick insects of Sabah.
Praying mantids ambush their victims. They wait patiently for insects to settle within reach, and many are coloured to match their background of green or withered leaves, or of flowers. This conceals the mantid from its prey and equally from its own enemies, the birds and the lizards. The formidable spined forelimbs are specially adapted for seizing and holding prey.
Termites are common in the rain forest but are often mistaken for ants, because of their similar foraging behaviour and organisation. Surprisingly, they are akin to cockroaches. They are often labelled as pests — and they do cause destruction worth millions of ringgit to wooden structures and buildings in Sabah — but they are ecologically important as decomposers of the rainforest. They are fine architects too, judging by the variety of nest structures they build in the forest.
The collective stridulating sound produced by insects in the evening is the typical concert atmosphere of the Sabah rain forest, and the cicadas are among the performers. They are singing: the mating songs are produced by a pair of abdominal organs in the male, to attract the female.
And if you stand right beneath a tree full of cicadas, it feels as though it is drizzling. The fine droplets are excess water excreted by the cicadas after feeding on plant sap.
Beetles come second to butterflies and moths in popularity, yet they constitute the largest and most diverse order of insects. The body is usually armoured by hard forewings, and many are brilliantly coloured. The largest in Sabah, a giant long-horned beetle, can grow to about 100 mm. Many of the larger beetles are attracted to light and can be spotted at nature resorts such as Kinabalu Park, Poring Hot Springs and Danum Valley. Among the common ones are the three-horned beetles, stag beetles and long-horned beetles.
The bees, wasps and ants are another diverse and abundant group. There are five species of honeybee in Sabah, two of them common among the local community. Honey from the cultured honeybees and from the giant wild honeybee is much sought after as a health food, and the brood is also held to be highly nutritious — taken raw, or cooked in porridge or rice. Honeybee keeping in Sabah is practised by the Rungus community in the north and by the Kadazandusun community in the Kinabalu foothills. The giant wild honeybee often nests on the mengaris, the tallest tree species in Sabah.
Ants may seem small and insignificant, with nothing much to observe. Yet anyone who has walked in the rainforest will not have missed the giant forest ant — one of the largest ant species in the world. By day a few workers can be seen foraging alone on the ground; it is really a nocturnal species, and thousands of them march up into the forest canopy to feed. The best time to watch is at dusk, at the base of a large dipterocarp, at Danum Valley, Sepilok Forest Reserve or Poring Hot Springs.
Among all insects, butterflies and moths have always been the most popular, being relatively large, colourful and attractive. Rajah Brooke's birdwing stands out among Sabah's butterflies as the Atlas moth does among the moths.
The birdwing was named by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1855, after Sir James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak. The male is often seen on the ground along small streams, drinking at seepages and saline springs; the female, less commonly seen, flies high among the trees.
The Atlas moth is one of the largest moths in the world, with a wingspan approaching 30 cm. The patterns on the wings are spectacular, and the black mark at the curved tip of each forewing resembles the head of a snake — enough to make an intruder think again. Sadly the adult lives only a short life, because it has no mouth and cannot eat. Beyond these two, there are many equally striking butterflies typical of Sabah worth looking out for.
Photographs from Bukit Gemok, from the Semarak area and from around Tawau. Click a photograph for the larger version.
Institutions and research centres holding insect collections:
Fauna/.Life/Gallery/Insects.htm
and modernized; the wording is unchanged apart from the correction noted above and light
copy-editing.Page reviewed: 6 September 2026.