Research Interests:

• Systematics and ecology of crabs (Indo-West Pacific)

• Larval development and ecology of crabs and Crustaceans

• Freshwater fish taxonomy and ecology (Southeast Asia)

My research over the last two decades has focussed primarily on the systematics of decapod crustaceans in the Indo-West Pacific, with forays into systematic freshwater ichthyology of Southeast Asia, ecology of brachyuran zoeae, ecology of peat swamps, conservation biology in Malesia, and museology. To this effect, my research team of over 30 graduate students over the last 10 years and myself have made the Systematics and Ecology Laboratory one of the international leaders in carcinology and aquatic biology. Much of the current work focuses on systematic revisions of key groups of crabs and fishes, which invariably involve comparative material from around the world. This has also involved extensive travelling - members of the laboratory have gone to as desolate areas as Lake Baikal in Russia, Palau in the Pacific and the heart of Borneo, as well as to research centres all over the world.

Current Projects:

Research Accomplishments:

With over 510 technical papers (mostly in international journals) published over the past 15
years, the laboratory is now a regional leader in systematic and applied zoology, and has garnered numerous national, regional and international awards, honours and kudos. There has also been funding from external agencies like UNEP, FAO and foreign conservation bodies. I have been or am still on the scientific committees of some 30 international organisations, ranging from external academic review boards for major organisations (e.g. Smithsonian Institution and the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, a select team of some 28 senior scientists tasked with overseeing the naming of animals.), conservation agencies (e.g. World Conservation Union), global and regional biodiversity agencies (e.g. UNEP), as well as numerous peer-reviewed journals from Europe, America and Asia.

The Systematics and Ecology Laboratory of the Department focuses its work on the taxonomy and Ecology of crustaceans in the Indo-West Pacific and freshwater fishes of Southeast Asia. Members and graduate students of this laboratory are currently working on broad systematic and regional revisions of various groups of freshwater and marine crabs (including deep water families), the freshwater prawn (Palaemonidae and Atyidae) fauna of East and Southeast Asia, revisions of selected groups of commercially important riverine catfishes, ichthyological freshwater fish fauna of Sumatra, systematics of air-breathing fishes in Southeast Asia, general ecology of mangrove crabs and swamp fishes, vicariance biogeography of freshwater crabs and fishes, and the conservation ecology and management of regional freshwater ecosystems (especially peat swamps). Many of these studies are ongoing collaborative efforts with crustacean and fish specialists from over a dozen countries internationally.

Selected Publications:

• Ng, H.H. & Ng, P.K.L. A revision of the akysid catfish genus Acrochordonichthys Bleeker. Journal of Fish Biology (2001) 58:386-418.

• Ng, P.K.L. & Clark, P.F. The eumedonid file: a case study of systematic compatibility using larval and adult characters (Crustacea:Decapoda: Brachyura). Invertebrate Reproduction and Development (2000) 38 (3):225-252.

• Ng, P.K.L. Biodiversity challenges for Southeast Asia in the new millennium and the role of the Raffles Museum. In: Proceedings of theFirts and Second Symposia on Collection Building and Natural History Studies in Asia. Ed. K. Matsuura. National Science Museum Monographs (2000) 18:3-23.

• Ng, P.K.L. The deep-water swimming crabs of the genus Benthochascon Alcock and Anderson, 1899 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura:Portunidae), with description of a new genus for the American B. schmitti Rathbun, 1931. Journal of Crustacean Biology, (2000) 20(2):310-324.

• Kerle, R., Britz, R. & Ng, P.K.L. Habitat preference, reproduction and diet of the earthworm eel, Chendol keelini (Teleostei: Chaudhuriidae),a rare freshwater fish from Sundaic Southeast Asia. Environmental Biology of Fishes, (2000) 57(4):413-422.