Burrowing frogs add to diversity of Western Ghats

T. Nandakumar, Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu , June 19, 2017 

Opening another window into the fascinating world of amphibian diversity in the Western Ghats, a research student at the Delhi University has reported the discovery of four new species of burrowing frogs.
The finding, published in the international journal Zootaxa, is the result of five years of extensive explorations in the Western Ghats forests. The four new species belong to the genus Fejervarya, but unlike other members of the family, they possess the ability to burrow.
“Two of the new species could be facing serious threats from human activities,” says Sonali Garg, who conducted this study as part of her PhD research.
“Like most amphibians, they are highly sensitive to changes in the climate, and hence can be studied as environmental indicator species,” says Ms.Garg.
“We need to be concerned about the threats to these frogs and do more studies to re-assess their conservation status,” says Prof. S.D. Biju, who led the study.
The first of the new species, Manoharan’s Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya manoharani), was discovered from the Agasthyamala hills in South Kerala and is named after T.M. Manoharan, former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, in recognition of his conservation efforts. The Kadar Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya kadar) was collected from the Vazhachal forests and named after the Kadar tribe that was in the forefront of the agitation against the Athiripilly hydel project. The CEPF Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya cepfi) was found in Amboli, a popular hill station in Maharashtra and is named after the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund which had contributed to the preservation of biodiversity in the Western Ghats.
Discovered in the Parambikulam tiger reserve, the Neil Cox’s Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya neilcoxi) was named after Dr. Neil Cox of the International Union for Conservation of Nature who was instrumental in preparing the Red List of global amphibian species.

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A new cast of crabs in Western Ghats

T.Nandakumar, Thiruvananthapuram 
The Hindu, June 08, 2017

The Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot is in the spotlight once again, as scientists have discovered a new genus and six new species of freshwater crabs in these mountainous forests.
With the recent finding in Kerala, freshwater crab diversity in the State has risen to 34 species, the highest in the country. Nearly 50% of crabs in the Western Ghats (27 of 47 species) occur here.
All six species were discovered on the Kerala side. The researchers including S.K. Pati and P.M. Sureshan from Zoological Survey of India, L. Rajesh, Smrithy Raj and A. Biju Kumar of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala and V.U. Sheeja, Holy Cross College, Nagercoil published the find in Journal of Natural History.
Karkata, which stands for crab in Sanskrit, has been given a separate genus, indicating a higher order of distinctive features. It is endemic to the Western Ghats.
One of its species, Karkata ghanarakta, was collected from the Thattekad bird sanctuary in Ernakulam district while the second, Karkata kusumbha was reported from Mankulam in Idukki district. The species name ghanarakta is derived from the Sanskrit for maroon, reflecting the colour of the crab. The word kusumbha (Sanskrit for safflower) refers to the orange-red colours of the creature that resemble the floral hues.
The researchers found two new species in the genus Pilarta. While Pilarta aroma inhabits cold water mountain streams in the Agasthyamala Reserve in Thiruvananthapuram, Pilarta punctatissima was collected from Ovumkal in the Thattekad sanctuary.

Paddy embankments

One new species, Cylindrotelphusa longiphallus, came from deep burrows along paddy fields at Kuzhikattusseri, Thrissur. The name is derived from the Latin ‘longi’ for long and the Greek ‘phallus’, a reference to long male gonopods of the animal. Another new discovery, Cylindrotelphusa breviphallus, is from Ponmudi in Thiruvananthapuram.

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